When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going...And Take An Impromptu Trip Through Europe Pt 2

What is a girls supposed to do when marooned in Germany? Get on Facebook of course. Judge me for my social media addiction later. Facebook just may have saved my tail this time. When I finally got to my hotel room, the first thing I did was unpack my laptop and hook up to the internet. First, I wanted to let everyone know where I was. The Man was in transit from Korea to the UK, so I figured the first place he would look would be Facebook when he got home. He knows my habits entirely too well.

My status update said "I'm in Germany" Which gotalotof comments and I explained that I only had the room for the night. I immediately had an outpouring of help. People started researching commercial flights for me and sending memessages.

I then tongue firmly in cheek updated my status to "Anyone want to pick me up at Ramstein and drive me home?" I didn't think that actually had a snowballs chance in hell of working. I then got an instant message from my best friend here saying "You remember my friend, R, I bet he would do it" Jaw hit the floor. Not because I didn't think he wouldn't really do it, but because he might actually. I then reached out to R andhe to my disbelief got himself organized, bought a chunnel ticket and headed to Germany from the UK. The whole process of talking to him and him leaving took about two hours. In my hasty negotiations I may have told him I would drive some...completely forgetting that his van is a manual and I only drive manual poorly at best.

I went to sleep after talking to The Man who had arrived home and gave him a brief rundown of the situation. I barely slept a wink all night, mostly due to nerves (because I was sure that I was being punked and that R wouldn't really show up the next morning) and also because KiKi decided that 2 am was the perfect time to be completely awake and having a conversation with me.

At 8am my alarm went off and I got thekids out of bed and started getting them dressed for the day. I was still freaking out because I was sure that R was going to not show up. At 8:20 I got a text message from R saying that he would be to the base inan hour and I started breathing again. I didn't need to hold my breath anymore. The other shoe didn't drop.

R showed up at the main hotel just as I checked out; I loaded my things and children into his van and we hit the road. About an hour into the drive R asked me to take over driving. I brought up my driving issue but seeing as how R had driven all night to pick me up, frankly me only barely being able to drive a manual transmission actually seemed like the safer of the two options. He shifted as I did the clutch and gas and then I cruised along the autobahn at a respectable 85 mph (NO SPEED LIMITS BABY!!) (getting passed by Audi's and BMWs like I was standing still) for the next two hours until we reached Belgium. R was snoring away as I with glee announced "We're in BELGIUM!!" Which was of course met by KiKi with "I've got to pee!"

I coasted and then stalled the van out at the first rest stop I could find.

Belgian Rest Stop Cows

R, resumed driving when we left the rest stop and we continued through Belgium and ended up taking a detour though the center of Brussels.

Brussels, Belgium

Then we headed into France to Calais to take The Chunnel back to the UK.

Heading Down to The Chunnel Trains

Overall it took me 9 hours to make it back home. I had the help of some wonderful friends. I found an angel disguised as a tough New York Italian in R. I saw a "DiaperNinja"...

I also got to cross a few things off my bucket list.

1. Drive on the Autobahn

2. Go to Brussels

3. Go through The Chunnel

I really would like to thank all of those who helped me get back home to my husband before his surgery. I could have never done it alone and I will never EVER under estimate the power of prayer and social networking again.

When The Going Get's Tough, The Tough Get Going...And Take An Impromptu Trip Through Europe Pt.1

The kids and I landed in Germany at 3pm local time on Friday. I had maybe two hours of sleep on the plane and we had been traveling since roughly 4:30pm east coast time on Thursday. I was tired. My body clock was completely confused and I just wanted a bed. After we made our way though customs and German immigration, I gathered the girls and we headed to the base hotel across the street from the passenger terminal.

As the girls stood next to me I asked the man at reception, Otto, for a room.

"We have no rooms, we are completely booked. You can maybe check in the reservations room to see if they can find you something on one of the other bases close by," he explained to me in a thick German accent.

I felt tears threatening to well up in my eyes, blinked them back, and said "You have got to be kidding me..."

"No, ma'am, I am not kidding"

Those Germans and their sense of humor...

I wandered to the reservations room, dragging my gigantic suitcase behind me and asked the pretty blond girl sitting at the first desk about any room availability elsewhere. They had nothing as well. She suggested that I check back in an hour.

I went back into the lobby, sat with the children and tried my best not to cry. Here I was in Germany, with two children, a suitcase that probably weighed 70 lbs and no plan. The next plane to the UK was not going to be leaving until Monday and I couldn't even find a hotel room for one night. I sat with the children and tried to keep my spirits up. Surely, things would work out. Surely, I wouldn't have to sleep on the lobby or passenger terminal floor. I kept compulsively checking my watch and enviously looking at the people who had obviously had the luxury of planning receive their keys and head to their rooms.

An hour passed and I checked the reception desk. Still no rooms. I headed to the reservation room. At the point I must have looked pitiful. I bypassed the pretty blond girl and headed over to the middle aged woman sitting on the opposite side of the room.

"I need a room for the night for me and my two children and frankly I don't care if it is a broom closet; I just need to sleep." I don't know if it was because I looked the a haggled mess or if it was because something magically "freed up" or what, but we ended up in a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom suite with a kitchenette, dining room, and living room for the night. Only for that night though. We would be put out on our ear the next morning.

After a short ride across base with our German taxi cab driver, we arrived at our building. I lugged my 70lb suitcase up 6 sets of stairs to the 3rd floor. There of course was no lift. Oh well, just another bump in the road. Par for the course, really. I was just happy to have a room. Now, I just needed a plan....

SIlent Sunday

Travel Update- We Have a Flight....Maybe

I am trying for a flight tomorrow. Hopefully, I will get on it. Ya never know with Space A travel. I could show up there and be told that the flight is full or canceled or I could get right on it. If I do get on it I will be heading to Germany and then figuring out my next move from there. It could be a RyanAir flight or another Space A military flight. It's all really up in the air.

I spoke to my husband this morning and he still doesn't know when he is leaving Korea for the UK. He says that he is feeling alright unless he is on his feet too long; then the hernia starts to burn. He should be having his surgery about a week after he gets to the UK. His doctors in Korea have already been in touch with the doctors in the UK. I am just hoping all the information is relayed efficiently.

I am off to bed now, with a queasy feeling in my stomach. I really hope I get this flight tomorrow. I would hate to have done all that packing for no reason.

Update- I got an email from my husband. He is leaving Korea and will probably be home before me. I have all my friends in the UK on alert and ready to help him out. My flight has been pushed back by an hour. This could change. Again. I just have to keep calling and checking flight times today and crossing my fingers that if they plane does leave today that I will be on it.

Houston, We Have A Ginormous Problem

You guys do realize that I can't do anything the easy way and something always goes wrong, right? There is never any sort of smooth and easy sailing in the world of Kat. We always have to do something the hard way, and since it was so easy for me to catch the Space A flight to the USA, Murphy's Law decided to kick me in the butt HARD at the end of my holiday.

I got an email from my husband this morning that he was returning to the UK early because he has a hernia and needs surgery. Yay he's coming home! Wait, I am in the USA!!! CRAP. So, I called him and found out the details, which are there are no details yet. He doesn't even know when he is flying home yet, but he knows it will be really soon. So basically I need to get home as soon as possible.

I am working on getting a flight out of Charleston to Germany, because they don't fly into the UK very often from here. I am just afraid that I am going to get stuck in Germany. I have started looking into Ryanair flights and Easy Jet flights just in case the Space A flights from Germany don't pan out. I have a really good support system in the UK just in case he beats me home. I am just trying to trouble shoot and put out the fires as they spring up. I am also trying to get all the laundry done, souvenirs packed and children entertained; whilst simultaneously repeatedly checking the Air Force Base flight schedule and trying not to freak the freak out. Right now though, I really just want to run screaming down the street pulling my hair out.

I knew this holiday was going entirely too smoothly, well other than that pesky tetanus shot...

That was totally worth it though.

A Little More Than Halfway Through...

I have been on holiday here in the states for exactly two weeks now. I have run from here to there seeing my friends and family. I have gone to the beach twice and the pool a few times and since it is a 100 degrees in the shade here in Charleston, I have decided that that is just not acceptable. I am on vacation dangit!

So here is my vow. I vow to spend as much time as humanly possible at the beach or in a pool. It is the only way to go when the air outside is so thick that it is like breathing concrete. I will wear as much sunscreen as humanly possible and rock my shades.



Oh, yes, we're gonna do this vacation right. If you need to find me, I will be somewhere in my bathing suit.

Things to Do While On Your Summer Holiday

Visit Family.


Play with bubble gun.


Meet your new cousin.


Visit a tourist attraction.



Walk across a gap in the mountain on a rope bridge and in the process give your mother a heart attack.


Enjoy the view.


See a waterfall.


Learn to swim!!