Is there an advantage to driving onto base?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joe on May 13, 2011 at 10:55am

Greg, i just found this, so if you've already gone to PIR I apologize for not getting in earlier.  I'll just append something I posted a long time ago, but I personally liked driving onto base.  And the line wasn't too long, but then we had to wait in the graduation Hall for a while.

 

We got to the front gate at just about 6:30 and I believe there were less than 20 cars ahead of us. Make sure you know where you’re going, because you pass about three gates on Buckley before you get to the right one. The proper gate is east of the VA hospital and is on the corner of Buckley and Illinois Streets. They waved us right through the gate after checking our parking pass and directed us to a small parking lot nearby. There they put us in rows and checked everyone’s I.D.s. That was it. They were patrolling around with a dog, so it’s possible they were doing spot checks on car contents. 

 

From the small parking lot you proceed to a much bigger lot.  If you're early gettin in is no problem, it's getting out that takes a while.

 

Hope that helps you or anyone else who's wondering.

Permalink Reply by John Claggart on July 30, 2011 at 12:59am

The advantage is not in driving onto the base, but in driving off the base.

If you take the shuttle from your hotel to PIR, it follows that after PIR you must take the shuttle back to your hotel. Once back at your hotel, you get to head out in whichever direction you want to go.

If your Sailor is flying out on Saturday and time is at a premium, maybe you don't want to go to your hotel after PIR. Maybe you want to head directly to lunch at The Silo (my personal favorite) or some other restaurant not near your hotel. You can only do this if you leave RTC in your personal vehicle.

Not taking the shuttle is the way to go if you want to open up your post-PIR options.

Jay

Permalink Reply by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on July 30, 2011 at 1:16am

not taking the shuttle is also a good way to get tied up in traffic trying to get off the base....it took me more than an hour for my first PIR to get out of the lot