1300 Local Time April 29, 2010 – 0900 Local Time April 30, 2010
(Since we are flying a-la-military-hops, all times stated forthwith will be noted in military time for the local hour).
I have found a shower that is more impossible to shave in than our shower at SU. But more on that later.
Papo and I set out from the house at the speed-limit established pace towards Dover Air Force Base. We figured if we got there for the Germany flight at 1540 then we would make the decision then as to whether or not we wanted to wait to take the flight to Rota the next day or hop on that flight then.
After a detour that took us through town (thanks to Google Maps (who I am really beginning to question the value of when it comes to directions)), we followed signs at Blackberry GPS to find the Air Force Base. When we arrived it turned out the flight to Germany did not have any seats available, so we set out to pick up a movie and some dinner.
We ate at a very fine establishment (The Tavern on South State Street) where it happened to be WING NIGHT and so we ordered 30 wings: 10 hot, 10 mild, 10 garlic-somethingelse. I ate about 11, Papo ate about 17 (and if you’re doing the math there were 2 of the garlic ones left over). So after relaxing there for a little while, we parked the car in Long term parking and walked our little half mile walk back to the terminal where we proceeded to hang out until…well…we’re still hanging out.
But there is WiFi, which is a very, very nice thing. (PS: I also got an e-mail for an interview =)). And after thoroughly running down the battery on my computer (which really doesn’t take very long), we watched the movie The Box. The Box is an interesting concept movie, but I’m quite sure it’s an excellent short story, but there was a little lack of movie magic in the actual presentation thereof. That’s okay though it was pretty interesting nonetheless.
And by the time we finished the movie, around 2145, I was ready to conk out. In order to avoid the really comfortable chairs in the lounge, I opted for the leather lounge plushes in the USO room. Apparently though you’re not really supposed to sleep in their or something like that. Definitely an x-nay (Papo figured out how to spell x-nay) on the feet in chair, and the really poor posture is questionable, because apparently someone’s boss was going to come tell me to sit up if he came in. …And here I thought I was out of college or something. And by out I mean almost. But I did sleep there anyway until around 0100 or 0130 (which is when I was informed of the posture club at the AFB) and at which point I discovered our Rota flight había sido cancellado—no dice on the going straight to Rota.
Lucky for us, though, there was a flight to Spangolemstein which was would be leaving in the morning at 1040. So we looked up Spangoladashe on google maps and tried to figure out where in France Normandy Beach was (I have a feeling our geography is about to improve a lot). So from the time I woke up til around 0400 we chatted it up with some of the other travelers put some other thoughts together and then finally it was time for another extended nap.
Sometime during the log sawing a photo was taken of me. This picture is most unflattering but probably worth seeing on account that pictures are worth a thousand words. To give you an idea, one of the first things I managed to say when I woke up was, “My butt hurts…and that’s not a good thing when you’re going to be getting on an airplane.” Well, we weren’t going to be getting on that plane as soon as we thought because the showtime for the flight with 71 firm seats (which means available apparently) was delayed until 1455. Showtime is also top secret precise military code for leaving around an hour to an hour and a half later.
So finally having woken up, I can tell you about this shower. Really, the system was good. It was secluded in its own little room with a lock so it was an actual usable shower (unlike gym room showers). To understand the shower, you need to think of Star Trek or some other show where there is a teleportation pod. What you really need to know is that teleportation pods aren’t very big. The water sprayed out quite nicely, and the water was warm (hey that’s actually saying a lot, I’m not complaining). But the only shelf was just below my shoulder and it was rounded so that the amount of shelf space seemed deceptively larger than it was since you couldn’t actually situate anything on the part that was curved. Anyway, there’s definitely no way to shave the legs if you’re a lady in that pod. You can’t prop your foot up on anything unless you’re an Olympic gymnast or contortionist. Probably a contortionist because there wouldn’t be enough space to back and extend your leg if you could reach. And then if you wanted to get down to your legs you had to squat, there wasn’t going to be any bending over because, again, not enough space in the pod.
Either way, I made it work, got the shower. I’m not significantly cleaner than I was. We neglected to bring real towels so 27 paper towels later I was relatively dry and my hair was only dripping every once in a while. I’m also pleased to report that my hair has remained somewhat curly in spite of cutting it and even without the hair dryer I seemed to have managed to get my hair to look decent.
But that would be all I have for now!
*~The Traveling Buddies
Current Location: Dover AFB, Delaware.
Day 1: Over and Out.
