Space-A in a Nutshell

photo credit

We flew on this. 

A C-5... one of the biggest Air Force planes.  It has a decent sized "troop deck" on the top with a bunch of passenger seats... at least 70 or so.  It's three per side of the aisle and pretty much what you get on a commercial plane.  Except the flight crew are not your flight attendents and you shouldn't expect them to treat you as such ;o)  You get a boxed lunch that you pay for (that it not surprisingly gross) and you get porta-potty-type bathrooms (also not surprisingly gross... but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do!)

We felt like this after.

I may or may not have cried when I finally got out of the Dover AFB terminal and actually saw Cassie and Zave waiting for us. 

It really wasn't that rough... I mean, it was as rough as you would expect an almost nine hour flight with two kids.  (After waking those kids up at 3am and then waiting for six hours to actually take off...)  Except add to the fact that you didn't pack enough snacks in your diaper bag.  Or wipes.  Or diapers.  Yeah, Mommy-fail. 

OH and then there was the whole flight being quarantined in a room for twenty minutes while they examined the sick guy who had been throwing up because they had thought he was throwing up blood and carried some crazy sickness that we were all infected with.  (AHHH!)  He wasn't throwing up blood.  And he wasn't sick... just motion sickness.  (PHEW!) 

It's all okay.  Cassie brought me flowers.  And Mike brought me pumpkin beer.  My bro-and-sis-in-law are good to me. 

They also gave me their bedroom, made me coffee, let me invade my house with my children, took me to Target for more diapers, made me delicious dinners, and put up with my sleep-deprived grumpiness in the mornings. 

I'm finding that adjusting to a six hour time change is a lot like adjusting to just having a baby.  You sleep when you can and you put up with their early morning crying jags by saying a prayer and doing your best.  I'm hoping jet-lag night number three goes better than nights number one and two :o)  (Also, I should hurry up and finish my posting so I can go to bed!)

Bottom line:  Space-A travel is awesome, but tiring.  Then again, all international travel across the pond is probably tiring, huh?  It wasn't a fun day... but I just kept reminding myself how blessed I was that it was free... and that I would be seeing all my extended family soon! 

So thank you USAF!  Thanks a bunch!