Space A

While my husband was gone to training his great grandfather passed. It was a sad time but also happy as he lived a long full life and many years with out his wife.  Since we were just sitting at home alone anyway, I decided to the kids and I would try and get a Space A (available) military flight back to the states for the funeral and some visiting.

This was our first time using Space A and with out our "sponsor" we were pretty low on the totem pole. The also base it on the day and time of sign up in each category. We had to wait for Colby to get our Command Sponsor ship letter so we could fly without him. Everything moved pretty quickly for us. He passes friday night (stateside time) and we were trying to fly out on Tuesday. We didn't make the first flight to leave Ramstein that day but lucky for us there was a flight that was delayed from the day before and we were able to get on that.

We landed at BWI about 5pm EST. Germany had not yet entered Daylight Saving time so in Baltimore we were only 5 hours behind Germany. That being said we landed feeling like it was 10pm and being up since 3am. Jet lag set in for my kids and turned them into evil monsters that in no way resembled them. Once we got through customs, we went on to the ticket counter for a flight to Atlanta. I paid a little more but got us a non-stop flight. They even waived the baggage fee.

We enjoyed our time in Atlanta. Then flew to Kansas to spend time with my husband's family and finally drove up to South Dakota to hang out with my family. We got to see a lot of our family and I got to eat all the places Colby and I have been craving, a lot of which was mexican.

We planned to fly back March 31st so we could be home when Colby got back from his month long training. Well, he called the Wednesday before to say they were sending him home Friday. They only post the flight schedule on Facebook 72 hours in advance and only the roll call times. So then I just had to wait until they had a flight back to Germany available. This happened to be Sunday. I had to fly commercially  back to BWI and they only flights to arrive in time left at 6am. I choose the schedule to put us in BWI as late as possible while still having enough time to get our bags and check in at the AMC counter. We had some decently long layovers but it all worked out. Once they started roll call for the flight I was very worried we weren't going to make the cut. There were a lot of people there! I was stressing once they got down to only 14 seats available but I was able to count the number at that point and we were 8, 9 and 10. Just barely made it. Once we were on the plane they said it was a full flight however, there were several empty or almost empty rows behind me. Whatever I guess. I didn't care as long as I was on that plane. We made it back to Germany happy and just a little tired!

 They are well traveled and wonderful travelers!