Wrapping up my deployment

As I am sure you have noticed, my posting has been very light to non-existent lately. As I roll into the last month of my deployment, there is much less "new" to post about. I've been working heavily on the plan for the Responsible Drawdown and that is almost complete. The job goes on (sometimes like groundhog day) and now I get to focus on shipping stuff home and getting ready to turn it all over to my replacement. I look forward to reconnecting with all of you when I get home.

A little about Aqaba, Jordan

Aqaba is Jordan's only seaport and is evenly split between a rapidly developing world class port and a resort town. It borders Eilat, Israel and is at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, an offshoot of the Red Sea. The town sits in valley between two arms of a mountain range as it reaches the sea, making it quite beautiful. From the Aqaba area, on a clear day, you can see Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

This area at the head of the Gulf has been settled since 4000 BC under the Edomites, Nabataeans (also built Petra), Greeks, Romans, the Islamic Caliphate (after Muhammad), the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, Saladin, Mamluks, the Ottoman Empire, Lawrence of Arabia, and finally Jordan. Aqaba also sits astride one of the routes to the holy sites in Mecca.

Visible from everywhere in the area is the Aqaba flagpole, the second tallest free-standing flagpole in the world at nearly 450 feet tall. It flies the flag of Arab Revolt (Palestinian support), which looks like the Jordanian flag with the colors rearranged and minus the star. There is also amazing diving in the Gulf of Aqaba, but I didn't get to experience that. The water was nice though with a higher than normal salt content making me more buoyant than normal...pretty easy to swim. I can definitely vouch that there are some great hotels and despite the global economic downturn, Aqaba is undergoing significant development of some impressive new living and resort areas. With Petra and Wadi Rum nearby, it is a great place to visit.

Copyright...we don't need no stinkin' copyright!

So do you think the "Gifts Shop" is full of official merchandise? This picture shows further evidence that copyright and trademark are very much a Western world construction. Copyright/trademark acknowledgment is generally non-existent in the Middle Eastern and Asian (except Japan) countries that I've visited. I haven't been to Africa, but I assume it's similar. This gift shop is just outside Petra, which, as I mentioned in the previous post, was featured in an Indiana Jones movie. Notice the high quality graphics on the sign.

Visiting Petra

After a few weeks of procrastination (and late nights at work), it is time for some posts from my Jordan visit. This first post is about the highlight of the entire trip and it happened the first day. On our inbound travel day, we arrived in Aqaba, Jordan around 8:00 am. The downside is to get there that early, the travel process started in the very early morning. The bonus was that with no planned conference events that day, we had a golden opportunity to knock out a little sightseeing (after a quick stop at McDonald's).

A group of four of us hired a car and driver to take us out to see Petra. It took us about one-and-a-half hours to wind our way inland and up into the mountains. Petra is one of the World Heritage sites and some also place it as one of the new 7 wonders of the world. It is an archaelogical site in southern Jordan renowned for its rock-cut architecture. The Nabateans constructed it as their capital city around 100 BCE and portions of it are amazingly preserved to this day. If you've seen "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", then you are familiar with part of Petra which played the role of the Templar Knights' tomb and final resting place of the Holy Grail.

Heading down into the valley to the site, you walk through a dark and narrow gorge called the Siq ("the shaft") that is naturally cut through the sandstone rocks. As you come to the end of the narrow gorge, Petra's most well-preserved ruin, Al Khazneh (popularly known as "the Treasury") peeks through the gap between the walls of the gorge. This is the amazing view familiar from "Indiana Jones" (first picture on left). It was incredible.

There are hundreds of caves/tombs/temples/buildings throughout the "city" of Petra as you wind down the gorge. Each of them has multiple chambers cut into the rock, some with additional tombs built inside and underneath the larger ones. All through the gorge are also the remains of stone-carved stairways cut into the beautifully colored, striped sandstone - paths to access the higher places. There is even a full amphitheater with multiple tiers of seating, tunnel entrances, and a stage.

We did a ton of climbing and exploring in four hours, but you could easily spend days here and not see everything. This site is easily one of the most amazing things I have ever seen, definitely worth a return visit. I have merely brushed the surface of all that is here, so please check out the web-link above to learn more.

Missed the President this time

This time, I missed seeing the President. We found out too late to make it over to the Palace without a weapon and before lockdown. You know you're out of time when CNN is broadcasting the visit right after you find out. I did, however, get to enjoy the intense security around the base since it was dinner time and finding an open road to get anywhere was difficult. We prevailed though and made it to dinner and back, just no Presidential sight-seeing tonight. Sounds like it was a good experience for those who made it though.

It's still McDonalds - even in Arabic

I have a few posts coming up from my short trip to Jordan. Until then, I do want to share two photos of a standard stop for American tourists. It is almost a rule that you need to visit at least one McDonalds and I didn't miss this opportunity. We stopped here for quick bite on the way out to visit Petra, Jordan. The Quarterpounder and fries was perfect after 4 months without McDonalds. To make it even more authentic, we ate in the car on the way.

Ba'ath Party Convention Center

The other big building on the Camp Slayer tour is the Ba'ath Party Convention Center. The construction design of this building is one of many that follows the Iraqi/Muslim convention that no sin can happen on water. It is only connect to the mainland by a bridge and is surrounded by water on all four sides. Essentially, it is a rectangle of large hallways big room complexes at each corner consisting of a pool area, theater, dining room, and conference room. It also has two docks right in the middle of the building.

This building was actually the location of the "first strike" of OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM in March 2003. The President had received intelligence that there was a large gathering of the Ba'ath Party/Iraqi Government in this building, specifically in the theater. A Navy Tomahawk missile launched from the USS Bunker Hill completely destroyed the theater and took out nearly 200 of the top government and military officials. We missed Saddam by 15 minutes. Some of you may have already heard this, but the movie that was in the theater's projector...Pretty Woman.

The first picture is the center "courtyard", showing the stilts supporting the building coming out of the lake. You will also see a JDAM bomb hole at the far end. The second picture is the pool, which as I understand it, was never filled...used primarily for torture and executions. Next is the dining room, which originally had the largest continuous chandelier around...now interrupted by another JDAM bomb hole. This last picture is an example of the ornate painted plaster ceilings that fill all of these buildings.

Victory Over America Palace

On Sundays at Camp Slayer, they offer tours of the palaces and buildings spaced around the lakes. Camp Slayer was originally part of the Abu Ghurayb Presidential Grounds and was home to the Republican Guard and the Iraqi Military Academy. The largest Palace on Slayer, never finished, is the Victory Over America Palace. In fact, the construction cranes still stand right beside it. The palace is so big, it was built to wrap around the already completed Victory over Iran Palace. You might wonder why Saddam named these palaces for victories that he didn't actually win. The popular story is that Saddam believed any war that he survived was a victory.

The palace itself is gigantic and the first picture shows the entrance. The second picture shows the main ballroom on the top floor that is football field sized and roughly 4 stories tall with multiple balconies, galleries, and attached "apartments". Though this palace was never completed or occupied, at some point in the early war, we targeted and struck this main ballroom area with 2 JDAM bombs. Maybe this was our answer to the palace's inaccurate name. All of the debris you see in the picture is a combination of leftover construction materials and bomb damage.

The third picture shows the ornate and unfinished stairways...no railings! It was a long way down. After seeing the remains of the fine Iraqi construction throughout the base, I always kept an eye open for something to grab on to quickly, just in case. As an example of the interesting Iraqi construction techniques, the floors all over the palace look like very roughly poured concrete - not a good base layer to put a nice floor on top of. It turns out that the Iraqis built the ornate marble tiled floors first, before the palace was even close to done, then to protect them from the construction, poured the rough concrete over the top. When the palace was completed, the workers would have had to chip off every single bit of the concrete protective layer to expose the marble floors. I guess no one ever explained that it is probably easiest to do the floors last. Or they didn't care.

The palace is also the tallest building around, with great views towards downtown Baghdad and around the rest of the base. This last picture from the roof is a view toward Uday Hussein's house, the Ba'ath Party Convention Center (more on that later), and in the distance, the Al Faw Palace which I mentioned in previous posts.

The Bomb-a-Grill

I was in the IZ last weekend for a meeting at the Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq (MNSTC-I) when I sighted this very peculiar looking grill outside. If you look closely, you will see that it is a grill built out of a bomb casing. Art, Soldier boredom project, or functional grill? Maybe a little of all three. Note the non-functional shredder underneath.

Teaser - Me and the tall guy

Okay, I am still lagging in putting posts up. I have been busy at work and by the time I get back to my CHU, I am falling asleep at the keyboard. SOON! To tide you over, here is a picture of me with one of the last remaining murals of Saddam. The mural is in the old Republican Guard compound on what we now call Camp Slayer.

More posts coming

I apologize for the lack of posting. I was out of town in Jordan for a week and am now trying to recover from all the work that built up in my absence. I have several posts coming on the Victory Over America Palace, Baath Party House, my trip to Jordan, etc. Stay tuned, I'll get them up in the next few days.

Which truck is mine?

I had to share this one. We came out of the Dining Facility (DFAC) recently and parked next to my Explorer was a MRAP. That's a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle. This particular one is a MaxxPro Dash and it's the smallest of the different MRAPs we have. That makes it all the more impressive next to my little Explorer. Imagine what it would look like next to a Prius!

Plastic Palaces

When I have limited time to get a post out, I have a few quick ones reserved to provide light reading for you all. Tonight's post is one of those.

Lest you all think that we have it too easy...working in a palace and all...rest assured, we don't quite have all the royal comforts. Our palace is essentially a very large house built for one family. The internal plumbing and septic tank (despite the "fabulous" third-world workmanship) is only designed to handle that one family. It has quite a bit of difficulty with the 200 or so personnel we have working in my building. The solution? What we like to call "plastic palaces".

So, yes, I am spending 6 months visiting a port-a-john multiple times per day. Fortunately, these are the cleanest port-a-johns in the world. They are completely cleaned out and pressure-washed with sanitizing fluid twice per day! So I guess we do have all the royal comforts after all...or something like that.

Now that I think about it though, I am not really looking forward to using the port-a-johns when it gets hot. Imagine 140 degrees inside a little plastic box with no air movement...

Happy 214th Birthday Navy Supply Corps

Today, we gathered local Supply Corps Officers to celebrate the 214th Birthday of the U.S. Navy Supply Corps. The first time for many while in a nearly land-locked country and working in the desert. We had about 20 Supply Corps Officers at Victory along with some of our Joint friends and another 8 Supply Corps via VTC from downtown. There was a beautiful hand-decorated cake from the DFAC for the traditional cake cutting - our oldest officer cutting was 63 and our youngest was 29. Our friends at the other end of the VTC matched us by cutting Zingers with a real sword they found some where. Despite the unusual location, the Supply Corps always finds an excuse to get together.

S'mores in Iraq

I just got back from having fun with the Iraqi Scouts. I haven't been for several weeks due to work conflicts, travel, etc. It was great to get back out there to interact with the kids. Today we did crafts, flag football, seed planting, logger's hitch rope tying and log relay, and finished with the best of all: s'mores! The flag football quickly turned into something closer to rugby...like soccer, but with hands and a football. The kids and adults had a great time and as always, s'mores dissolved into making marshmallow charcoal and playing with the fire. Scouts are scouts no matter where you are.

On that note, parents of scouts have amazing similarities also. I was watching the closing ceremonies today, with all the kids lined up before the flags to listen to the Iraqi Scout Master's Minute (story with a lesson). As I watched, I saw some of the Iraqi soldier parents execute a very familiar maneuver. They noticed their kids messing around and quickly moved from the side to a position in front of the kids with full eye contact and gave the "I'm watching you" move. It was immediately recognizable, Iraqi or American...the same.

Only in a war zone

You're not likely to see this sign in a Starbucks. No, only at a Green Beans coffee shop franchise on a Forward Operating Base in Iraq. Apparently, slung M-4s and M-16s are quite dangerous to glass display cases. This particular case has had the glass broken at least 2 times before. Those scones are pretty good by the way...ditto the little donuts.

Light posting

Sorry for the light posting lately. We have been getting ready for a visitor and that leaves little time to unwind at night, so posts suffer. I promise I have a whole slate of posts queued up for next week when things get back to normal.

Something from back home...

This post has nothing to do with Iraq except that I couldn't be there because I am here. I just wanted to share this great picture of Cameron (far left) and his fellow Cub Scouts presenting the Colors for the National Anthem during Scout Night at the Washington Capitals game. Since, Beth couldn't actually get that close, the picture is courtesy of the Jumbotron. The Caps won by the way.

It's not a UFO...

No, not a UFO...it's an aerostat - the technical name for a balloon or blimp. If you look in the two pictures about center you will see a white object in the sky. It is shaped something like a fatter, shorter, Goodyear Blimp. These are tethered to the ground and act as our eyes in the sky. Their sensor packages provide protection to the base by watching the surrounding areas all the time. Definitely a cool way to keep us safe.

Fine Art - Saddam style - Part 1

Buildings all over the Victory Base Complex have examples of Saddam-endorsed art as relief sculptures on their walls. I will post pictures of the best ones over time, but we will start with my favorite. This one is on the side of my own building, the "palace of all palaces". It is a sculpture honoring Iraq and its important history. Included are a date palm representing the agricultural richness, an oil well showing the great natural resources, a pyramid of Babylon, and Hammurabi giving the first written code of law. Oh yeah, and U.S. bombs coming to blow it all up. Such a joker he was....

SuperBowl and General Order No. 1

According to General Order #1, military deployed to Iraq cannot consume alcohol (and a whole list of other prohibited things). General Odierno, however, authorized a one-time waiver and everyone gets two beers during the SuperBowl as a "morale booster". There is a catch though. You must actually attend the organized function during the SuperBowl hours to drink the beers...that's 2:00am to 6:00am over here. I decided that I am far too old to stay up all night to watch the SuperBowl just to have two beers. It's not worth making the entire next day (work day) painful.

I did wake up in time to watch the last quarter in my CHU. Looks like I missed a great game, because the last 4 minutes were awesome. Go Steelers!

You live in a box?

Yeah, but it's a nice box! To balance the big picture thoughts of the last post, it's time to lower the level of discussion a little.

So, yes, I live in a box - a shipping container to be exact. These are the same intermodal ISO shipping containers that you see on large container ships, trains, and trucks. Ours are modified to live in...we call them CHUs for Containerized Housing Units and they are much better than tents! On the major operating bases in Iraq, nearly everyone lives in CHUs, although there are still some tents for transients and new arrivals waiting for CHUs. There are still some small fire bases/security stations that combat units ("trigger pullers") use where the living conditions aren't quite as nice. Some of these "trigger-pullers" get to return to the luxury of their CHUs on the big bases.

From the inside, you would never know that you are not in a real building. There are two types of CHUs, "dry" and "wet". For the "dry" CHUs, each 40 foot container is divided into 3 separate rooms, roughly 10x10. The most junior enlisted up to Majors/Lieutenant Commanders (O-4) are paired up two-to-a-room in these. Lieutenant Colonels/Commanders (O-5) like me also live in one of these, but have the space to themselves. We all have to go to separate trailers for toilets and showers. The other kind of CHU - "wet" - is divided into two rooms, sharing a bathroom with shower in between them. These are reserved for Colonels/Captains (Navy) and E-9s (the most senior enlisted). This all varies a little from base-to-base, but those are the general rules. Inside, we get a heater/air-conditioner, a wardrobe/locker, a bed with mattress, and a night-stand.

The CHUs are all lined up in rows with T-walls around them. The toilet and shower trailers are usually in the middle of several CHU rows. All of this combined with a billeting office and laundry service trailer make a village called an LSA (Logistics Support Area). My LSA is named "Omaha Beach".

The pictures are my row of CHUs and the inside of my room. It is bigger than my stateroom on the aircraft carrier, so I am not complaining at all.

Happy (Iraqi) Election Day!

Today, the Iraqis pulled off quite an accomplishment. It was an awesome experience to be here during their successful provincial elections. A vast majority of Iraqis voted and there were no major attacks to disrupt the election. Today makes an even greater impression when you realize that the Iraqis did it themselves. They led all the planning, provided all the security, and executed the elections safely and correctly. It wasn't U.S. Soldiers & Marines keeping the Iraqi citizens safe while they voted, it was Iraqi Army (IA) and Iraqi Police (IP). It was very professionally done.

General Odierno made a great point today. This election marked the transition to "issues-based" politics vice sectarian politics. The electorate made it clear that they expect the elected leadership to address the problems with basic services. The Sunni's all came out to vote because they realized that their boycott of the last election really hurt them in political representation. They have become vested in the peaceful process of democratic government.

I truly expected large attacks on Iraqi voters by Al Qaeda and insurgents, although I hoped it wouldn't happen. You know the bad guys wanted to disrupt the election...the fact that they didn't/couldn't shows you how much the Iraqi Army and the Coalition has disrupted their operations. A great day for all Iraqis and for those of us here trying to help them make it all work.

(Photo: An Iraqi citizen proudly displays proof that he has voted outside a polling site in Jabella, Iraq, during the provincial elections in Babil Province on Jan. 31, 2009. Credit: U.S. Navy Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Wendy Wyman/Released)

What is it you do exactly?

One of my professors chided me after reading the entire blog and realizing that I never posted anything about my actual job over here. I guess I should rectify that.

As most of you know, back home I work for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the supplier of almost everything a Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine uses, wears, or eats on a daily basis. I also work for DLA in Iraq, just forward deployed. I am the Executive Officer (#2 guy) for the DLA Support Team (DST) in Iraq. We have 70 DLA military and civilian personnel scattered around Iraq at major troop concentration areas. These personnel help their units manipulate the DLA supply system to support troops and weapon systems, oversee the supply of all food and fuel, help the Iraqis to set up their own National Supply Depot (like DLA), remove and demilitarize scrap from U.S. FOBs, and many more missions. The DST Headquarters (where I am) is located at Camp Victory in Baghdad. There, we are attached to Multi-National Forces - Iraq (MNF-I) CJ1/4/8 which runs logistics policy for all of Iraq. MNF-I was formerly commanded by General David Petraeus, and is now commanded by General Odierno, while General Petraeus is his boss at U.S. Central Command. At the DST HQ, we lead and administer the team throughout Iraq and work on strategic level initiatives with MNF-I.

Our office is in one of the palaces on Camp Victory, actually the second largest one after the Al Faw Presidential Palace. The DST is in a converted dining room, which is pretty swanky. The picture included is from my desk.

I hope that captured what I do without losing anybody. If anyone has any questions, please drop me an email and I can answer in more detail.

More Iraq from the air - urban

I posted a few pictures of the rural side of Iraq already. Here are some pictures of the more developed areas of Baghdad and some outer towns. These pictures show a range of housing from large and relatively nice with trees to more densely packed smaller housing. The one thing in common is that all the houses have flat roofs, usually tiled, which are used as an additional "room" of the house. In the winter, you mostly see clothing drying on the roof, but in the summer, apparently, people spend a lot of time in the evenings up there, to include sleeping there instead of inside (no air conditioning).

The first photo (left) is a relatively nice neighborhood. The next (right) shows a big open dirt area likely used for gatherings and soccer. The third (next left), though blurry (helo moving too fast) shows a satellite town of Baghdad, the houses are more spread out but everything in between is dirt. Next down (right) are apartment buildings in central Baghdad. Vertical housing or apartments are actually rare and only really exist in downtown Baghdad, everything else is lateral sprawl.









To provide the counterpoint, next (on the left) is one of the palaces in Baghdad, now used as a governmental building. I also can't forget to include a bombed-out building, because there are plenty of those in downtown Baghdad. So the last picture (right) captures that for you. I am not sure what that building was, but halfway up, you can see the damage through the haze. You will also notice that the buildings around it are unharmed. I am still working to post everything from my trip last week, only a few more posts to go.

T-Walls - What are they anyway?

I know I mentioned T-Walls in previous posts. Some of you may not have had the privilege of ever seeing one, so I thought I should explain and provide pictures. As you can see, most T-walls are about 10 feet tall, with a wider foot forming the cross-bar of an upside-down "T" - hence the "T"-wall. The sides are notched so the walls fit together side-by-side without a gap. Entrances are formed by offsetting T-walls and leaving a gap to walk between. The walls are used for protection around all buildings/structures on our bases, to form security walls, and to line roads and neighborhoods in cities. They are what we see everywhere...miles of plain, gray concrete. At least the Iraqis paint elaborate murals all over theirs - much better.

Baking and breaking bread

When I was in Taji, I had a rare opportunity to participate in a portion of Iraqi life. Two-thirds of the base happens to be occupied by the Iraqi Army and to support the Iraqi Dining Facilities, there are two Iraqi bakeries. My escorts in Taji frequent one of those bakeries, so we swung by to get a bag of Iraqi bread. The Iraqi bakers apparently love it when Americans stop by which doesn't happen very often, so I was immediately enlisted in the baking process...complete with pictures. On this day, they were baking a particular type of Iraqi bread that is football shaped with pointier ends, about 3 inches by 6 inches, and like pita bread or naan, but slightly more puffy and soft. It is baked in a large wood-fired brick oven and the bakers put it in and remove it with a long paddle that can hold 10 or so pieces of bread along its length. That's the part I got to help with - putting in and pulling out the bread. Once the bread is removed from the oven on the long paddle, you push it off by hand across the tile work surface and it drops into a waiting bin. Like all fresh breads, the warm bread is VERY good. On my previous trip to the IZ, one of the Iraqi interpreters showed me that one way to eat this particular bread is to slice it open along the side (like a pita) and put slices of cheese inside. No cheese this time though. After baking for a while and posing for a bunch of pictures with our new friends (between being handed tons of free bread), we paid for a full bag and headed out. After the trip, I emailed the pictures back to the Taji team so they can print a few and take them back to the bakery. Another once-in-a-lifetime experience for me to remember!

Chuck Norris and the military

Some of you may know that Chuck Norris is a huge supporter of the military and participates in many USO tours through war zones to meet and talk to the troops. Conversely, the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines over here are also huge supporters of Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris "facts" are common conversation around here and can just as easily be overheard at the Dining Facility as they can be found printed on the wall of a port-a-pottie. You can guess where I found the two posted here. These amazing and outlandish Chuck Norris facts can be found here. Wikipedia also has a good history of the phenomenon here.

A green Iraq - perspectives from the air

Last week, during my trip, I traveled via UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter in a couple of flights through the area north of Baghdad up to about 50 miles out. I had an awesome seat each time, sitting just behind the crew chiefs/gunners with a great view out the side windows and plenty of time to observe the country-side from low altitude. From the air, the unlimited potential of this fledgling democracy becomes obvious.

The entire area I flew over is smack in the middle of the "fertile crescent" between and around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. When you look at maps of Iraq, this central portion of the country is generally shown as green. From the air, you can see why. The entire area is or was at one time under cultivation. Field boundaries, green crops, and the soil ridges from former crop plantings stretch as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately, less than 10% of this is currently in use and planted - that is the tragedy. This country in days past was the breadbasket of the Middle East and it can be again. If you have ever seen the agricultural areas of the Jordan River Valley in northern Israel, you know what I mean. This area has the same potential to be lush with crops from grains to date palms. It was before and can be again.

It is also apparent that the decay of Iraqi agriculture is not a new thing caused solely by the current war. Many of the fields I saw have been fallow for significantly more than 6 years. No, this is a long term decay as irrigation canals were poorly maintained, Saddam stole the water to fill the lakes around his palaces, and the farmers just gave up.

This vision of the potential locked within this nascent state, more than anything else, makes me hope they are successful. Iraq has the potential to become the economic powerhouse of the Middle East, they just have to survive long enough to get there.

Business trips are automatically cool if you fly in a helicopter to get there.

Just got back from a short business trip. I flew up to Taji for a day, then Balad for a day, and back to "home" - Camp Victory in Baghdad. All the flights were in Army UH-60 Blackhawks, which is awesome. Helicopters are the best way to go anywhere. I promise to post more on my adventures in the next few days, but for now, I am relishing being back "home" in my own CHU (Containerized Housing Unit), downloading the photos, and gathering my thoughts. I probably have enough for several posts including the helicopter rides, an Iraqi bakery, Chuck Norris, Oil for Food, etc. Some of those topics probably don't sound like they belong, but I promise to explain...

Rocks, rocks, everywhere...

Since it is obvious there is a mud problem, they needed something to make it a little better. The answer? Rocks. Lots and lots of rocks - from the tiniest pebbles to pill-bottle sized river stones. The exact same kind you would use for landscaping in your yard/garden. They are everywhere that we would normally walk or park a vehicle. Sometimes, they are even used as "grass" where no one ever walks or parks (picture, below right). There are still piles and piles of them that haven't been spread yet.

I do have to credit my experience here for teaching me something that I never realized. I used to think that these river stones actually came from, you know...rivers. That, somewhere, a company extracts them from dry river beds and sells them. Now I know that this can not be even remotely true. Why? On this one single base, we have enough river stones to account for the output of half the rivers in North America. There is no way that these stones could have been naturally generated unless there is an entire layer of the Earth's crust filled with river stone. No, the companies that provide the river stone must have huge industrial tumblers that turn rough rocks into these smooth stones. Remember those drum tumblers they used to sell in the Christmas Catalogs that turn common rocks into shiny stones? I always wanted one of those...