5,793 Leagues Around the World

This journey begins and ends here in the lovely country of Iraq.......

 

If there is one thing the Army is really good at it's "hurry up and wait". Now, combine that with the standard waiting time at an airport and you've got yourself a plethora of waiting to do! I could have left for Kuwait the day before I actually did, but I wanted to arrive in the states as late as possible because I had plans already set in place. I had wanted to leave on the 18th of March, instead I had to leave on the 12th. I had to wait at the Baghdad Airport for about 6 hours before they finally got us on a C130 for the hour long flight south. That was one of the longest hours of my life! Most of you know I get motion sick VERY easily. I have a difficult time handling the ferris wheel! A C130 reminds me of a sardine can.  We were packed in there so tightly that our knees were overlapping one another's. In addition to that, there aren't any windows to look out of. This is what I need to even have a remote chance of not getting sick. The picture above is relatively accurate, just imagine everyone in their protective vests and helmets with our carry on luggage in our laps. I had the barf bag out and ready to go. Thankfully I didn't need it.

 

Kuwait....

 

I landed in Kuwait at about 2000. The very first thing we did was drop off our IOTVs (protective vests). It was such a relief to get rid of that thing! Once that was done we had to sit through a few briefings. God forbid we go anywhere without being briefed first. After the briefings we had to turn in some paperwork to the travel company that was going to be scheduling our flights from our gateway airport. My gateway was Dallas/Fort Worth. I was finally able to sign for a bunk at about 0230. We had already been told that we didn't have to be anywhere until the 15th! That's right, I got to spend 3 days chillin in Kuwait. While I would have much rather spent those 3 days elsewhere, I was glad that I got to waste a few days to allow me to arrive closer to my desired date as possible. I really didn't do much while I was waiting. I spent time on the internet, but mostly I just read in my bunk and slept. It was wonderful! The 15th finally rolls around and once we go through customs we are on "lock down" for a couple of hours while they got our plane ready. After an hour and a half bus ride we are finally able to board the plane.

 

Ireland....

6 hours later we landed in Shannon, Ireland for a refuel. I spent all my time there in the airport gift shop. I bought a few key chains. One for my self, one for Kevin and one for Erin. Kevin's had his name on it with a real clover inside and Erin's had Chloe's name on it also with a clover inside but this one had a diamond on it for Chloe's (soon-to-be) and Erin's birthday. I really wish I could have explored Ireland while I was there. Guess the fam and I will have to take a trip there once we move to Germany next year.

 

Georgia....

 

The next leg of my trip was from Ireland to Atlanta, Georgia. Instead of putting the Dallas folks on their own plane and bypassing Atlanta, we had to waste a few hours in Atlanta and go through customs there. There was a really cool thing that happened when we pulled up to the gate after we landed. Two fire trucks turned on their hoses and crossed their water streams over our plane. It was a really neat site to see!!

 

Texas....

 

At this point in my trip home I was extremely tired and kind of cranky. I just wanted to get to the ticket counter to get my ticket home and hurry to my gate. What I saw when I got off the plane and exited the air walk changed my attitude QUICK!! What I saw brought tears to my eyes. It was a site very similar to this one....

 

Vets, students, random people, girl scouts, boy scouts, firefighters and police officers lined up on both sides welcoming us all home! It was amazing!! After shaking hands with everyone and receiving a couple boxes of girl scout cookies, I headed to the ticket counter. My itinerary had me flying from Dallas to Chicago and then down to Kansas City. I was not happy about this so I tried to get something else. Since the airline is not allowed to alter the end destination I bought my own ticket from Dallas to Wichita. I would end up getting in a good 5 hours earlier flying in to Wichita than I would flying to Kansas City. It was a no brainer for me.

 

Kansas....

 

Finally home!!! Cory met me at the airport. It was sooooo good to see him! We didn't stay long at all at the airport. Once we grabbed my luggage we were out the door. Cory had brought along Izzy, at my request, and she started going NUTS when she saw me! She was so cute! The car ride home was uneventful. Izzy slept peacefully on my lap. The kids were excited to see me. At least, I think they were excited. Haylie gave me a big hug but Kevin was Kevin. He gave me one of his one armed hugs. I'm used to those from him but this one was way different. It was his first time hugging me since he grew taller than me!! That first night I didn't do anything, but the next day I began the task of cleaning the house and doing laundry.....not an easy feat!! 4 days later we loaded up the car to head to Omaha to catch a plane to our next destination.

 

Washington D.C.....

 

Beautiful place!! We stayed with my friend Yvette at her place in Virginia, but before we met up with her we squeezed in a bit of site seeing. We got a ton of walking in. The first place we visited was Arlington National Cemetery. There were two main places we wanted to see; JFK's burial site and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. JFK's site was really neat. He and his wife are buried side by side with a child of theirs on each side. There is an eternal flame just behind and centered.

 

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was breathtaking! Seeing the guard take the same exact number of steps both ways (21) and then pausing for the same amount of time at each end of the path (21 seconds) was amazing.

 

From Arlington National Cemetery we walked to the Lincoln Memorial and from there we could see the Washington Monument. I was more than a little disappointed to see that the reflection pool in front of the Washington Monument was under construction. From there we walked past the State Department where my friend Mel Mel works! She had the day off so I didn't get to see her then. We met up a couple days later though. When we finally made it back to our car via the "sub way" (a MUCH nicer version than the one in New York), we headed out to the Harbor to meet up with my friend Yvette for dinner. I hadn't seen her since 2007 when I drove to Alabama from Georgia when I was stationed at Fort Gordon. We had a great time! After dinner we headed to her place and crashed. The next morning we had to catch a train to our next destination!

 

New York....

 

We ended up missing our train to New York, but all was not lost! My friend took the day off and drove with us! It was about a 5 hour drive but it wasn't too bad. There was plenty to see, and plenty to pay! The tolls there are outrageous!! I believe, all in all, we paid about $40 round trip in tolls! CRAZINESS!! If you've never driven in NY, DON'T!! But if you do, please heed this advice; be defensive and a bit aggressive but LETITGO!!! It does absolutely NO good to question why NY drivers are doing what they are. Get your car into a parking garage as fast as possible, be prepared to pay an arm and a leg for it, and take the sub way or walk to wherever it is you want to go. We were there for about 10 hours and I paid $43 for parking. Once we parked, we went to eat lunch at Applebee's in Times Square. On the way we passed Parson's School for Design. The same place they film Project Runway!! I was stoked!! Now, I know you're thinking Applebee's?? You can find an Applebee's anywhere! Well, when I was there in November of 2009 I had the BEST burger of my life and I really wanted to see if I could get it again. Unfortunately, they didn't even have that particular burger on the menu anymore, but they tried to re-create it for me. How nice of them! I left a little disappointed, but it was still good. From there we got on the subway and headed to Battery Park to try to get on the Statue of Liberty cruise. We got there too late, but I think that even if we had been on time we wouldn't have been able to go. The weather was not conducive for a sightseeing cruise. Slightly dejected, we headed to the 9/11 site. Not really much to see there. There was just a big hole full of construction equipment. You'd think that after 10 years they would be a little further along with building the memorial and whatever else they are planning to put there. There was a really neat mural of sorts on the side of a building honoring that day and the fallen, so that was cool. The Empire State Building was next on our list. At this point it was raining and lightning. They told us we could still go up if we wanted to, but the outside observatory was closed due to the lightning and there was zero visibility. We didn't go up. By this time it was late enough for dinner so we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe. I believe it was at this time that we got hailed on and then snowed on, so we had stopped to buy a few umbrellas. The Hard Rock was good. We pick up a few t-shirts and hoodies on the way out. By the time we left the restaurant it was time to start heading back to Virginia. We didn't get to bed that night, or I should say morning, until 0500! Our last full day in DC we met up with Mel Mel for lunch at the Hard Rock (I think we are going to start hitting up all the Hard Rocks wherever we go, especially since we are moving to Europe) and then went to see the White House. I was expecting the White House to be grand, but it was considerably smaller in person. It was still neat to see though. That evening we had dinner at Fireworks in Leesburg, Virginia. It was here that I got to see an old friend I hadn't seen in 10 years!! Valerie and I went through DLI (language school) and AIT (job training) together from September 1999 to December 2000 and January 2001 to June 2001, respectively. We all had a really good time catching up! The following morning we headed to the airport to head home...one of our homes, anyway.

 

Nebraska...

 

Here we finally get to see family! I scheduled a little get-together at Old Chicago down in the Old Market.

 

It was really good to see friends and family again! We hung out there for about 4 or 5 hours before some of us headed out to Mics Karaoke Bar.  Cory and I try to go here every time we are in town. This is where we first met...in person :) Needless to say, it hold a special place in my heart. Wait for it..........AWWWWWW!! The next day we hung out with my mom, step-dad and my preggo sister and her husband. They were all very nice and watched our kids for us while Cory and I went out to dinner and then hit up the Kenny Chesney concert!!!  I LOVE this guy!! I've seen him at least 5 times in the last 6 years! It happened to be Kenny's birthday the same day so that was cool. It was also the second time I've seen Uncle Kracker with Kenny. The other opening act was Billy Currington. He was pretty good too. During the intermission between the opening acts and Kenny, Cory and I ran into my best friend from high school, Dustin. He's the LAST person I expected to see there! I guess his fiancee is a fan and someone else in the group he came with had backstage passes. I was so jealous!! Anyways, it was an awesome show as always! Sunday we headed to church. I love going to church at LifeGate. Since I came back in the military we tried to find a church that can compare to LifeGate. We have yet to succeed. After church it was time to say goodbye to my mom, Roger and sisters. We headed down to Lincoln to spend a few hours with my cousin and his mini me, Liam. It's always good to see them. We had to leave sooner than I wanted cuz we had to get the kiddos to bed at a decent hour for school the next day.

 

Kansas....

 

It's good to be back home! I have only 4 days left of my R&R. Yes, I'm sad, but I'd had an awesome vacation thus far. I spend the rest of my time home getting the house in order, relaxing and just spending time with my family. On April 1, no April Fools joke here, I say by to the kids and send them off to school and then Cory and I head to Wichita so I can start my trip back to Baghdad. Something really cool that we noticed was that the families of Soldiers were able to go past the security checkpoints to be with their Soldier at the gate. Cory got a "ticket" from the ticket counter and sailed right through security together! It was hard to say goodbye, but it would have been even harder had the kids been there. I was glad I decided to have them go to school instead of with me to the airport. Seeing Haylie cry when I first left back in November really tore me up. I didn't want to go through that again so soon. My flight from Kansas to Texas was uneventful. The only thing different from Texas to Europe was were we stopped for re-fuel.

 

Germany....

 

We stopped in Leipzig, Germany. I wish I could for sure say that it's a really nice place, but again, I only got to see the inside of the small terminal. I've stopped here 3 times before and it still looks the same. Nothing exciting happened here.

 

Kuwait....

 

Thankfully I was in Kuwait for only about 4 hours. I was ready to get back and start getting back into the swing of things. I was dreading the flight from here to Iraq since it was going to be on a C130 again, but I hung in there. I didn't get nearly as nauseous as the flight out.

 

Iraq....

 

I land in Baghdad at 0900 (Baghdad time) on the 3rd of April, a Sunday. I'm in my CHU and chillin by 1030. There was no way I was going to head right into work.

 

Well, that about covers it, I hope.

 

Oh, and 5,793 leagues is the equivalent of about 20,000 miles.