Monday, March 9, 2009

Space-A

Reese and I flew Space-A (that's a military flight for you non-military folk) back to the States so that would could recharge our vitamin D batteries. I've been wanting to try and catch a hop for awhile to see how it would work since tickets from Frankfurt to San Francisco are upwards of a $1,000 on average and I was not disappointed. My friend Sarah had said I would prefer it to flying commercial and she was right, though flying on a military flight has its downsides overall it was a nice way to travel.
The downside of taking a hop is that there is no set schedule and you only hear about possible flights 72 hours in advance. I'd heard of a flight on Wednesday and checked it constantly, but after getting up at 1am and getting ready to head to the airport the flight had been cancelled...luckily we hadn't actually left for the airport. There was another flight on Friday so we headed over to Ramstein and Reese and I got a seat on flight from Ramstein to Maguire (NJ) and then on to Travis (CA). It wasn't difficult to get on since there were 40 something seats on only about 10 of us wanting to get on the flight. We flew on C-17 which is a pretty large cargo plane; the center of the plane was filled with pallets and there were jumpseats along the walls that we sat in. The seats were nice because unlike on a commercial flight they weren't right up against each other, there was at least 4 in. between each seat so you weren't rubbing shoulders with the person next to you and there was nothing in front of us but pallets so there was plenty of space to stretch our legs. Once we were airborne I laid a few blankets out on the ground and Reese crawled around and played with her toys throughout the flight, which was a lot nicer than trying to confine her to her carseat for hours on end. The downside of the flight was that it was very loud and a bit cold inside the plane, they gave us earplugs but Reese's wouldn't stay in and I didn't want her trying to eat them if they fell out, also the flight was a bit longer than usual.
When we landed at Maguire they unloaded a bunch of the pallets and our flight from there to Travis almost the entire center of the plane was empty so Reese got to try and walk around (using my hands) and it made the time pass by a lot faster. When we landed in California the pilot opened the back of the plane and we got to look out on the sun and feel the warm air as we taxied off the runway.
Taking this flight made me feel really bad for my friend Abby and her story of traveling to CT with rude passengers. Everyone was so helpful the entire time. There was always someone who offered to help carry Reese's carseat for me and when we offloaded at Travis someone else offered to carry my bag so I only had to worry about carrying Reese. The pilot came down at the end of the flight and took a picture of Reese and I and talked about how good she was during the flight. Overall everyone was so kind and it was far less complicated than flying on a commercial flight, I mean I was able to go to the bathroom while a kind retired military personnel watched Reese for me and when we went through the security I was able to bring bottles of water which wouldn't have happened elsewhere. Best of all, the entire trip from Germany to California cost me a total of $8.25 which was for the two huge box lunches a bought at the airport to eat on the plane. I'm going to go ahead and say that we'll fly spac-A again, afterall I can a think of a lot of ways to spend the $991.75 I saved by not buying a ticket.

5 comments:

Kami Alkire Photography said...

Wow, I didn't even know that was an option. For the price I would say it sounds worth it!!
She is growing up so fast!

Sarah said...

Glad to hear you guys got there safe and sound!
Enjoy the sunshine for me.

Jenny said...

Yeah that you made it safely!! That is a pretty cool way to fly. And you are soaking up the sun as we speak. How nice!!

Congratulations on winning!! Of course your rock band won. Do you remember Rik adn Jamar spending hours trying to beat that racing game and you sat down and creamed it in 2 minutes? I still smile.

I love you Reese!!

Adventures in Petersonland said...

no way! i didnt know you were trying to get to the states again.
and ya, i flew space a with brynn when she was a little younger then reese and definately thought it was the way to travel with young kids. the sound IS annoying, but i actually liked it better then flying normally. i hope you are able to get back ok though. i had the hardest time (but then again, i flew into mcchord up in seattle so it might be different) so i had to buy tickets for brynn and i and that was pretty pricey.
i hope you guys have a blast. i may not be able to see you again as we move in 2 weeks! so crazy...i wish we had hung out more. im so lame and tend to hang out in my house while watching oprah and playing guitar hero.

Valerie said...

I am so glad you had good luck with flying SpaceA. I too am huge on it and had good luck the first time. I think the crew are so much happier than on a commercial flight! We are trying it again this summer! We hope we have as much good luck as we did last time!