Home At Last

That's right. We finally made it home from Germany. A few of you already know what a feat that is. After hearing that we've been trying since last Wednesday, actually traveling since Friday morning, have been to 4 different Air Force bases and 4 different commercial airports, driven through 4 states (twice) on the eastern seaboard in 2 different rental cars, and gotten to know way too many cab drivers very well (Mohammed in DC and Jeff in NJ are tied for first) -- well, I think the rest of you will agree!

As with every difficult experience, I learned something: there are A LOT of good people in this world. I could start with my family - my sister put up with me calling the local air base from her house every two hours (yes, that included through the night) for two days while I checked on flights. My parents actually answered the phone at 2 am their time when I called after yet another flight was canceled and I got stuck in NJ.

Then there are the random strangers who are just plain awesome when it comes to helping another person. There's the soldier on leave who specifically checked on my flight for me during the night so I could sleep. There's the cab driver who didn't charge extra for following my rental car to a gas station 20 miles out of the way at 3 am. There's the retired Marine who gave us a ride from New Jersey to DC so we could try for another flight, and then gave us a ride to the airport when that didn't work out. Plus there are all the airmen and USO workers who put up with my endless questions and did anything they could to help, even if it was just giving Colby some cookies :)

So, yes, Colby and I had a hard time getting home, but we also had the opportunity to see how wonderful people can be. I'm sure I'll look back on this someday and laugh about all of our flights that were canceled two hours beforehand, but for now I'll just appreciate the fact that we're home and that we got to meet some pretty amazing people on our journey here.