Purgatory ~ Friday December 16.... WTF??

 Oh how fun was my Friday??? There is really no way to fully experience it without being here, but here goes an attempt of bringing you into my World. I will try to make this one fast, and there is a lack of pictures (Who would want memories of this anyway?). I will also try to keep my bitching and venting to a minimum considering pretty much everyone that I dealt with today was very helpful.

Follow Me ~ Let's get this show on the road!

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes Purgatory as ~ " 2 : a place or state of temporary suffering or misery" ~ Welcome to my Friday!!

 Out of bed around 4:00 A.M. so I can catch a ride over to the PAX terminal for a 6:00 A.M. showtime. Got to the terminal where I met up with another guy that I originally met in Sharana (Oh, and Nick is no longer with me at this point). He too was waiting to get out on the same flight as myself. I had him watch the bags for me, and I headed out to Green Beans and bought us some coffee. 6:00 A.M. rolls around and all the seats are given to Military R&R and Emergency Leave only ~ We are S.O.L.. We are told there will be no more flights until 7:00 A.M. on Saturday, but I also know that flights show up unexpectedly and you need to be present to fly. The one good thing is that sometime in the past seven months they finally opened a brand new big PAX terminal to replace the basically two small rooms they had before. The new terminal was a long time coming, and is very spacious ~ No more sleeping outside in the freezing cold on top of the luggage!

 A couple of pics is all you will get today...

So, at 4:30 P.M. I finally get word that I made a flight that had one available seat... I was just lucky that the guy behind the counter was trying to help me get somewhere to get an X-ray, since in reality that seat should have gone to someone else. At this point we palletize our luggage and head upstairs to the holding area to wait for our flight. NO GO!! This one gets cancelled ~ Go pick up your luggage - It is back to the waiting game.

 Okay, now here is where it just starts running all together. 

 At this point I have made some new travel friends who are also trying to get a flight out. This group is comprised of several contractors, an ARMY Master Sergeant, and an ARMY Major. The major and I spent several hours watching Family Guy while nodding off in the wonderfully comfortable (NOT) metal seating. I did manage to sneak away and walk down to pick up some coffee, and munchies ~ My balanced dinner for tonight was (My Sister wont like this one) one big bag of Cool Ranch Doritos (bread and grain group), Cheese Dip (milk and cheese group) , and Salsa (fruit and vegetable group).... There was also probably some Reesee's Peanut Butter Cups in there somewhere too (chocolate and peanut butter group). I find that one of the worse parts about travelling is the eating habits that come along with it.

 Now I am not sure what time it was, but we finally are told that we have got a flight. This is just after we didn't make the cut on one flight about half an hour earlier. This is probably the third time I have had to palletize the luggage, but this time we are going to fly!! The time finally comes to head out to the plane, and out the door we go. We must have walked at least half a mile down the flight line to get to the plane with all our gear and backpacks. At this point I am guessing it is probably about eight, maybe nine o'clock at night. We get on the C130 aircraft (which is a  propeller type of cargo plane) and prepare for the SEVEN HOUR flight to Kuwait. 

The getting prepared involves four of us downing two Tylenol PM tablets to help get some sleep on the extremely noisy flight. Finally!! Taxi out to the runway, engines a blazing, and we are in the air headed to Kuwait. I nod off, and the next thing I know we are descending and ultimately we come to a landing. I am thinking to myself ~ "Wow Self - That sure did seem like a quick flight!".... Guess F'ing what??? It was!! Forty five minutes into the flight we started leaking fuel, and had to turn back to BAF!! The verdict is that they will not be able to fix the problem right away, so back to the terminal..... WTF???  At this point it is now Saturday so I will see you back here for tomorrows episode of "Traveling With Leo" ~ I hope you are all still with me - I'm really having fun with this!!

So much for making it fast ~ Leo

Forgot to mention... The flight that left right before us also had some problems, and they too ended up back at BAF with us again.