Leaving Germany...Returning Home!

This is our family.  June 24, 2013.  Excited to say goodbye to Germany and head home to the United States.  We hadn't seen the States in almost 2 years...and we were ready!  This is about 7:00 am Germany time (12 midnight Oklahoma time).  What you don't see are around 6 VERY large suitcases, a couple of smaller suitcases, and 5 carry on bags.  Oh, and Anji (our cat) in a small carrier!  She would be travelling in the cabin with us on our flights to the States.  We were up early, excited and prepared for a long day of travel ahead of us.  But we knew (or at least we thought we knew) that we would be in OKC in approximately 15 hours!!

We arrived at the airport in Stuttgart, and made it through security with no problems!  Even taking Anji out of the crate to walk through security wasn't the ordeal we thought it would be!  Our flight was on time, and it was a smooth 9 hours.  Little R was a champ!  He watched movies for 9 hours straight...except for some pretty frequent bathroom breaks...because the nice ladies kept bringing him Sprite! : )

We arrived in Newark, NJ on time and settled in for a long layover.

Anji had been in her small carrier for approximately 12 hours at this point, and we were able to check her in to the kennel at the airport to give her room to stretch out and use the litterbox during the layover.  This was a blessing!

We found a Dunkin Donuts with free Wi-Fi...another blessing!  After a couple of hours of surfing the net, and having some food, we decided to check on our flight.

At this point, we are TIRED, very TIRED!  It is approximately 11:00 pm Germany time, and we have been up since 5:30 a.m.

We check the screens for our flight...it's not listed yet...so I check online, and it shows our flight status as cancelled!!  We panic a bit, and R leaves us at Dunkin Donuts to go and check things out.  After being gone close to an hour, he returns.  Yes, our flight is cancelled.  No, there are no more flights leaving NJ to OKC that evening.  But my darling husband has kindly booked us on a flight leaving at 6:00 am the following morning!!  After a minor meltdown (or major hissy fit) on my part, I convinced R that there was NO way we were going to be able to come back to the airport by 4:00 am the next morning!!  Remember, we are dealing with a 7 hour time difference, jet lag, and now we have been awake for over 18 hours!!  So...he heads back to the ticket counter to see if he can find a flight leaving the next day, but late enough that we might actually be able to get some sleep!

Fast forward almost another hour later...and R returns.  We are in luck!  He has booked us on a flight for the next day, leaving at 2:00 pm!!  The airline will pay for a hotel room for the night, so no problem, right?  Oh, and one little glitch...the flight leaves from La Guardia, not Newark.  No big deal...the airline will pay for a cab from Newark to La Guardia, then at La Guardia they will book us a room and we will be on our way!  Simple, right???

Hmmm...we just realized we are going to spend a night in a hotel...and we don't have our luggage...so we have NOTHING!!

By this time we are late to pick up Anji from the kennel.  So, we head down to the kennel where we dropped her off, and they are closed!!  Luckily we were able to go to another counter, and after a bit of a wait, we were able to pick her up.  So far, so good!

Now...off to get a cab and head to La Guardia...which is in New York City, in case you didn't know!  We were told it would be about a 45-minute cab ride.  None of the cabs are big enough for all of us, so Little R is going to have to sit on a lap.  I am a car-seat stickler...but I am so tired at this point that I say okay.  They assure us we don't go THROUGH the city...we go around it...no major traffic or anything.  So, we load up in the cab, and we are off!  And guess what???  Traffic, fast driving, THROUGH the city...and tunnels!!  I'm a nervous wreck because my little guy is sitting IN.MY.LAP through New York City!!!  But we make it to La Guardia...finally.

Now, it's just a quick trip inside, they will book us a hotel room, and pay for a cab to get us there.  Simple, right????

By this time it is about 9:30 p.m. New York time....which equates to 3:30 am the next day Germany time.  We have now been awake for 22 hours!!!!  Little R fell asleep on the ride to La Guardia, so that is a blessing (or so we thought at the time).  I put him in the stroller, and we are off to the counter to get our hotel room booked.  A is laying in the floor, using her backpack as a pillow, Little R is in the stroller asleep, T is carrying Anji around in the carrier, and I am sitting on the floor, exhausted...while R goes to the counter to handle the hotel room....and we wait.  And we wait.  After about 30 minutes, they tell us they are having trouble finding a hotel room.  Everything is booked by all the other people who were on the cancelled flights.  And we have a cat....and no available rooms that will take a cat!! 

And I am freaking out just a bit!  And then....Little R (still sleeping) pees his pants...which of course wakes him up...crying!!  We have no extra clothes...all the shops in the airport are closed...and Little R is soaking wet...and CRYING!!!  And we still can't find a hotel room!!!!

I take Little R to the bathroom and try to dry his clothes with the hand dryer...but it's one of those that doesn't even get warm...so it doesn't really work.  Oh, and he's still CRYING!!

We go back to the counter where R is still trying to get us a room...but no luck!  I got out the Ipad, signed up for 10 free minutes of Wi-Fi and started searching frantically for a hotel room that will take pets and has rooms available.  ONE option pops up...2 rooms will cost us $500 for the night.  Doesn't matter...I book it!  It's totally worth $500 to get my little family to a hotel room!  We tell the people we found our own hotel room, and we just need a cab to get there.  They say to give them a few minutes and they will try to get it paid for by the airline.  After another 15-20 minutes, they agree to pay for it, we head out to the cab, and we are on our way!!

The cab driver is very friendly, but his English is not very good. R asks him if he could possibly stop somewhere to see if we could find dry underwear for Little R.  Oh, and in case you are wondering...Super Wal-Marts don't seem to exist in NYC!!  Even though the cab driver is being paid a set fee for the trip by the airline, he agrees to stop at a Rite Aid that is still open....R runs in...no little boys' underwear.  Cab driver goes to another Rite Aid in another area...R runs in...no little boys' underwear.  Finally, we just agree to go on to the hotel.

We check in to the wonderfully nice hotel, and head up to our rooms.  They are wonderful!!  By this time it is after midnight, New York time....so it is after 6:00 a.m Germany time.  We have now been awake for over 24 hours!! OUCH!!  I use the hairdryer to dry Little R's clothes, put them back on him, and we all head to bed, for some much needed sleep.

The hotel had a restaurant on the rooftop where they served breakfast.  R took A and Little R up there when they woke up, and this is the view they saw!

After a good (although short) night's sleep, a warm shower, and a good breakfast...it was awesome to see this view of NYC!  And although we would rather have been in OKC on this morning, this was a neat surprise!

And while I was getting showered, R decided to call some dear friends who live in New York now.  We met this sweet couple when we were stationed at Ft. Hood MANY years ago, when they had no kids, and we only had two.  We have seen them only a couple of times since then, when we visited them in Florida.  Now they are in New York, and they rearranged their plans for the day, and agreed to meet us at the airport for lunch!  They even brought Little R a new outfit to change into, so he didn't have to spend another day in his pee-soaked clothes!! 

What a blessing it was to see them again!!  Their son Caleb and Little R became fast friends!!  And we got to meet their newest addition for the first time!  It was an extremely bright spot in a very awful trip for us!!

Lunch together!  Little R was a very happy boy!  We hadn't seen Caleb since he was 2...so this was a real treat for all of us!

Great lunch, great friends!!

Picking out ice cream together...so cute!

Ethan sampled some ice cream, too!

Silly, happy boys!!

After our lunch & quick visit, we said goodbye to Dave & Becky and the boys, and headed to our next flight...to Denver.  We were trying to get to OKC, and the only way to get there was via Colorado???  Oh well, whatever it takes!!  We had a smooth flight to Denver, then a short layover and we were on our way to OKC!!  We landed sometime around 10:30 pm OK time, and got to bed around 1:00 am.  So...after about 48 hours of travel...we made it!!

I can't even begin to explain how great it felt when we landed in OKC!!  We were thrilled to be back in the States after almost 2 years away!!  And it felt even better to wake up the next morning, take a shower, put on clean clothes and makeup, and start our new normal, back in the States!!