Snow follows us everywhere!
Our trip to the States was pretty uneventful. We arrive at the AMC, hoping to catch a flight to Jackson, MS, but there was only 1 seat left. We considered squeezing into it, but it's a long flight, so we waited on the next one. It was heading to BWI (Baltimore, MD) and was supposed to leave at 530pm, but didn't take off until almost 9pm. Of course, we sat in the terminal the entire time except for a quick run to get lunch at Macaroni Grill at the KMCC (Kaiserslautern Military Community Center...fancy acronym for MALL). The lunch wasn't good. We read our books, played games, and made a few friends while sitting there. I got to talk to a baby, which is always a plus, and she smiled and cooed at me. :)
When we left Germany, it was somewhere in the low teens and had been snowing off and on for a few weeks. There were 6 inches of snow on the ground. The flight was okay. It was really crowded, the food was terrible, and we didn't sleep at all. How can you when your knees are touching the back of the seat in front of you? I'm not a tall person, either, so I'm sure the towering military guys behind us were happy.
We landed in Baltimore at 11pm their time, which was 5am for us. We waited over an hour for our baggage. Again, though, we made friends. There was a military mom there with 2 daughters. One of them was around a year old and had cried the entire night on the plane. I don't complain about that because she's a baby and her ears were hurting. There's nothing anyone could've done for her. I got more frustrated with the parents who let their 4 year old kick the back of my seat and then threatened to "hit you in the face" if she did it again. Really? You're going to hit your 4 year old in the face? It took every ounce of self-control I had not to turn around and say, "If you hit her in the face...." Not my place, I know. The baggage arrived and we went to find out if we could 'hop' to Jackson from BWI. By this time it was very early Thursday morning local time, and we found out that the next flight to Jackson wasn't until Saturday. We decided to buy plane tickets instead, but none of the terminals were open. Joe got online and got cheap tickets, but the flight wasn't until 9am. What to do? We found the USO!
I've always seen the USO commercials. I've even volunteered with them, servind hotdogs with my nice red, white, and blue hat on. I've never really utilized their services, though, until this trip. We love the USO. That organization is fabulous! They provide snacks, drinks, computer connectivity, games, and semi-comfortable chairs to crash in. I ended up sleeping for around 30 minutes after I ate a bowl of Ramen noodles. I also discovered that Ramen noodles are good no matter what time of day or night your body thinks it is. I wonder if the manna that God sent to the Israelites in the dessert tasted anything like Ramen noodles. yummmmy
We made our way to the gate to get ready for our flight and the kids fell asleep. That was a blessing. They were such troopers. They didn't fuss, argue, or otherwise complain at all the entire 36 hour period that we were traveling. Our flight from BWI to Jackson was great. Southwest knows what they're doing. The seats had 6 inches more room for our knees. Joe and I sat next to the emergency exit with the kids on the opposite aisle. The flight attendant, a male, said, "You do realize that your responsibility is to get that door open, not tend to your children, should something happen." I just grinned at him and Joe said, "She'll tend the kids, I'll get the door." The flight attendant said, "Actually, you're both responsible for the door." Then Joe and I just both grinned. We all know what would happen, should that plane go down. Joe would get the door open as I grabbed my children and got them off the plane first. I know that sounds selfish, but they're my kids. I'm going to take care of them. The thing is, though, how many planes actually get that door open and have survivors? In reality, we would've been praying and singing to Jesus if that plane started going down!
We arrived in Jackson, made it to a hotel and decided that we would try to stay awake until 7pm. HA HA HA I took the kids swimming, which lasted about an hour. We all got showers and ate a big meal around 3. Then we walked around the Bass Pro Shop for an hour. At 430 we returned to our room and made our big mistake. We sat down. We turned on a movie, and within a hour we were all asleep. We slept until 5am, after waking up from midnight-5 every hour. At 2am I heard Joe tell Caylea, "You HAVE to go back to sleep! Your body is tired, your brain just doesn't know it." We got on the road to Mamaw's house after securing a very nice rental van. At this point we still hadn't found a Chick-Fil-A, but that's another story...
When we left Germany, it was somewhere in the low teens and had been snowing off and on for a few weeks. There were 6 inches of snow on the ground. The flight was okay. It was really crowded, the food was terrible, and we didn't sleep at all. How can you when your knees are touching the back of the seat in front of you? I'm not a tall person, either, so I'm sure the towering military guys behind us were happy.
We landed in Baltimore at 11pm their time, which was 5am for us. We waited over an hour for our baggage. Again, though, we made friends. There was a military mom there with 2 daughters. One of them was around a year old and had cried the entire night on the plane. I don't complain about that because she's a baby and her ears were hurting. There's nothing anyone could've done for her. I got more frustrated with the parents who let their 4 year old kick the back of my seat and then threatened to "hit you in the face" if she did it again. Really? You're going to hit your 4 year old in the face? It took every ounce of self-control I had not to turn around and say, "If you hit her in the face...." Not my place, I know. The baggage arrived and we went to find out if we could 'hop' to Jackson from BWI. By this time it was very early Thursday morning local time, and we found out that the next flight to Jackson wasn't until Saturday. We decided to buy plane tickets instead, but none of the terminals were open. Joe got online and got cheap tickets, but the flight wasn't until 9am. What to do? We found the USO!
I've always seen the USO commercials. I've even volunteered with them, servind hotdogs with my nice red, white, and blue hat on. I've never really utilized their services, though, until this trip. We love the USO. That organization is fabulous! They provide snacks, drinks, computer connectivity, games, and semi-comfortable chairs to crash in. I ended up sleeping for around 30 minutes after I ate a bowl of Ramen noodles. I also discovered that Ramen noodles are good no matter what time of day or night your body thinks it is. I wonder if the manna that God sent to the Israelites in the dessert tasted anything like Ramen noodles. yummmmy
We made our way to the gate to get ready for our flight and the kids fell asleep. That was a blessing. They were such troopers. They didn't fuss, argue, or otherwise complain at all the entire 36 hour period that we were traveling. Our flight from BWI to Jackson was great. Southwest knows what they're doing. The seats had 6 inches more room for our knees. Joe and I sat next to the emergency exit with the kids on the opposite aisle. The flight attendant, a male, said, "You do realize that your responsibility is to get that door open, not tend to your children, should something happen." I just grinned at him and Joe said, "She'll tend the kids, I'll get the door." The flight attendant said, "Actually, you're both responsible for the door." Then Joe and I just both grinned. We all know what would happen, should that plane go down. Joe would get the door open as I grabbed my children and got them off the plane first. I know that sounds selfish, but they're my kids. I'm going to take care of them. The thing is, though, how many planes actually get that door open and have survivors? In reality, we would've been praying and singing to Jesus if that plane started going down!
We arrived in Jackson, made it to a hotel and decided that we would try to stay awake until 7pm. HA HA HA I took the kids swimming, which lasted about an hour. We all got showers and ate a big meal around 3. Then we walked around the Bass Pro Shop for an hour. At 430 we returned to our room and made our big mistake. We sat down. We turned on a movie, and within a hour we were all asleep. We slept until 5am, after waking up from midnight-5 every hour. At 2am I heard Joe tell Caylea, "You HAVE to go back to sleep! Your body is tired, your brain just doesn't know it." We got on the road to Mamaw's house after securing a very nice rental van. At this point we still hadn't found a Chick-Fil-A, but that's another story...
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