Travel day!!!
Jan 1st
Well, it is a new year. I was up early this morning. I have been packed to go for three days now. I didn’t want to take a lot of luggage so I have condensed everything and I will be wearing regular clothes out of here. The guys have never seen me look like a girl. It’s not like I am coming out in a bathing suit or anything, just a turtle neck, slacks, and nice boots. But the guys hammed it up for me :-) I thought I would just go to travel and get on the plane and start my journey……. It’s never that easy.
Of course the plane is late so they decide to take us to chow. I didn’t like being out and about on the base in regular clothes. I felt out of place. But oh well. Eventually, I got to get on my plane. These puddle jumping flights have to be the most unnerving thing you can imagine. First of all… it’s not like we are going to an airport. We walk out to the flight line and the plane drives up to us. As its coming up, one of the propellers isn’t working, it looks like it flew in WWII for the germans, and we have to walk up a ramp in the back and throw our bags in a pile and pick a seat. I didn’t even have a window to ease my mind while I watched the plane get enough speed. The floor was pealing up and everything was very old ans stained. There wasn’t any siding on the inside of the plane and the carpet and been pulled up and I swear there was ducktape on the wing! When we get into Baghdad, its not much better. That airport is always scary. It is really run down and most the lights don’t even work. We were able to go right through and get onto our next plane that will take us to Dubia. That plane was just as scary. I went to the bathroom and the walls were stained yellow. There were nasty ash trays in the bathroom and the lights didn’t work very well giving it that eerie yellowy flickerie grainy feel like a scene from the movie ‘Saw’. AND lunch was sitting right with me so all I did was make it worse. Now it was an eerie flickerie yellowy grainy stinky room.
It seems like it takes forever for us to get to Dubia, where I get to catch another flight. Once we get there, we are corralled to a bus and then to a hotel. I met some other firefighters going out on RnR. We went the bar as soon as we got to the hotel and started drinking. I was hoping to get a good enough buzz on to help me sleep through the next flight. All in all it is going to take me a total of 24 hours of travel to get to Frankfurt. My last flight was really cramped. It was so uncomfortable. My butt hurt so much I couldn’t sleep. It really sucked. I just wanted to get there and get a shower! I didn’t even feel like messing with my computer or music. I just wanted the flight to be over. UGH!!
Well, it is a new year. I was up early this morning. I have been packed to go for three days now. I didn’t want to take a lot of luggage so I have condensed everything and I will be wearing regular clothes out of here. The guys have never seen me look like a girl. It’s not like I am coming out in a bathing suit or anything, just a turtle neck, slacks, and nice boots. But the guys hammed it up for me :-) I thought I would just go to travel and get on the plane and start my journey……. It’s never that easy.
Of course the plane is late so they decide to take us to chow. I didn’t like being out and about on the base in regular clothes. I felt out of place. But oh well. Eventually, I got to get on my plane. These puddle jumping flights have to be the most unnerving thing you can imagine. First of all… it’s not like we are going to an airport. We walk out to the flight line and the plane drives up to us. As its coming up, one of the propellers isn’t working, it looks like it flew in WWII for the germans, and we have to walk up a ramp in the back and throw our bags in a pile and pick a seat. I didn’t even have a window to ease my mind while I watched the plane get enough speed. The floor was pealing up and everything was very old ans stained. There wasn’t any siding on the inside of the plane and the carpet and been pulled up and I swear there was ducktape on the wing! When we get into Baghdad, its not much better. That airport is always scary. It is really run down and most the lights don’t even work. We were able to go right through and get onto our next plane that will take us to Dubia. That plane was just as scary. I went to the bathroom and the walls were stained yellow. There were nasty ash trays in the bathroom and the lights didn’t work very well giving it that eerie yellowy flickerie grainy feel like a scene from the movie ‘Saw’. AND lunch was sitting right with me so all I did was make it worse. Now it was an eerie flickerie yellowy grainy stinky room.
It seems like it takes forever for us to get to Dubia, where I get to catch another flight. Once we get there, we are corralled to a bus and then to a hotel. I met some other firefighters going out on RnR. We went the bar as soon as we got to the hotel and started drinking. I was hoping to get a good enough buzz on to help me sleep through the next flight. All in all it is going to take me a total of 24 hours of travel to get to Frankfurt. My last flight was really cramped. It was so uncomfortable. My butt hurt so much I couldn’t sleep. It really sucked. I just wanted to get there and get a shower! I didn’t even feel like messing with my computer or music. I just wanted the flight to be over. UGH!!