Liberty Commence

Liberty aka regular time off is huge in the military as it allows everyone to decompress and relax just like anyone else who has time off in the civilian world. What makes it gratifying here at NIACT is that we are training 6 days a week usually 9-10 hour days. So although yesterday was supposed to be a regular training day drill instructors made sure we finished early so that we'd have more time for liberty since Sunday is our day off. Finished by 1300 and started our journey out with the E-Club a nickname a few of us junior enlisted gave ourselves.

Filled our bellies at buffalo wild wings with wings and beer. For some reason 2.5 miles walk didn't sound bad but when it's 85 degrees and humid we were asking ourselves why didn't we cab it. Watched some college football in the 5 points area. It's so foreign to me to be in a big college town (University of South Carolina) because you see how much it means to a city/town. We thought the 5 points bars would be packed but almost everyone it seems like was at the stadium for the game. Unlike Los Angeles for example if there was a UCLA/USC game there'd be no difference in the amount of patrons at most establishments in my opinion. The spot we should have gone to would be the stadium so we could tailgate with these SEC folks.

Decided to leave the 5 points area to try and see if our chances downtown would be any better in terms of bigger crowds. Unfortunately that wasn't the case but we had a good time at World of Beer.  Surprisingly they had the game corn hole and we were able to set up right in front of the bar on the sidewalk. My buddy Tyler and I lost only 1 game the whole night and won some beers along the way. It's awesome to see the local brewery in SD, Ballast Point doing well since they were sold out of sculpin beer.

Hopped to another spot and bam we hit the jackpot in terms of a lively crowd. It was a block or two off of the main downtown  area but man everyone was wearing some sort of USC gear. Live band playing cover songs from the 90's-00's was the main key to the fun. The eye candy was insane in terms of ratio and quality. I don't know what's in the water here but these southern belles will make a man fall to his knees.

We were out and about for a good 11 hours making the most of our liberty. As exhausting as it was it was worth it to be in public with everyday civilians and have a nice break from the military culture. Only a few more days till its showtime this was probably our last chance out. We have a few more liberty days left but think we'll be staying in for those.