Joy's Space-A Adventure

For those that did not know, both of Joys maternal grandparents passed away this month. After the news of her Grandfather's passing, we decided to send her back to the United States for the funeral. After deciding that we did not want to spend $4000 on last minute tickets back from Okinawa, we chose to test the unfamiliar waters of Space Available travel.

So, after jumping through all the bureaucratic hoops of getting her paperwork in order, Joy, the courageous and strong woman that she is, took Calvin and Oliver and hopped on a flight from Okinawa that was bound for Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. This was Tuesday morning, Okinawa time, and was the first leg of the journey. Things seemed to be going well, and she arrived in Guam about 5 hours later. This flight was aboard a C5 plane, which she said was similar to a commercial flight. Here, things got interesting. She got to Guam and they basically told her that her paperwork was jacked up, and that she was not going to be able to get on a plane to Hawaii, which was leg 2 of the trip. Even if we fixed the paperwork, she was going to be a really low priority, which would make it very difficult to catch a flight. After a few hours of phone calls to me in Japan and trying to get the paperwork in order, she eventually resorted to tears in the Air Force Master Sergeant's office. He, who was not going to let her fly, caved. It worked. He was going to let her back on the plane and give her the top priority so that she would be assured of getting a seat.

Unfortunately, the wait was just beginning. She arrived in Guam at about 2:30 pm Okinawa time after a 5 hour flight, and waited until about 1130 pm, when they finally decided that the next flight was going to leave for Hawaii. So, they put all the passengers on the plane, got everyone in their seats. Mind you these seats for the flight to Hawaii were aboard a C-17, where the seats were directly behind crates of cargo secured to the floor with chains. After getting the passengers situated, they then proceeded to announce that the plane was having maintenance problems, and there would be no flight. So, she unloaded the boys, again, gathered all the luggage, and proceeded to a hotel that we had reserved for her on the island, where they informed her that the only rooom for her was on the third floor...and there was no elevator. Poor Calvin was so exhausted, that he started crying at the bottom of the stairs saying "I want my daddy, I want my daddy." Breaks my heart. She arrived there at about 200 in the morning...still in Guam.

She woke up the next morning, and had to wake up the boys, gets them ready, get the stuff down the stairs with the help of 3 maintenance men, and hops a taxi back to the terminal. She arrived and found that they were leaving earlier than expected, and had to rush to make the flight. Luckily, she got on and was finally on her way to Hawaii, more than 24 hours after beginning her journey in Okinawa. On the plane, there was a lady that had a blow up little mattress, the kind you lay on in the pool, which they proceeded to inflate so that little Oliver would have place to sleep. So, little Ollie is on a cargo plane, bright lights, loud engines, lying on the floor, sleeping on a blow-up pool lounger. You can't write this stuff.

They finally arrive in Hawaii after an 8 hour flight at about 11:00 pm Okinawa time. They get a cab and go to the hotel where she finds out that she is again on the 3rd floor of a building with no elevator. The sympathetic cabbie proceeds to take all her stuff out of the car, put it on the sidewalk, and drive off. No lie. So here is Joy, almost 48 hours into her quest to get home, having to take the boys upstairs, leave them in the room crying, while she goes back downstairs to carry up the luggage. She gets to go to bed at about midnight Okinawa time, after 4 am Hawaii time.

6 hours later she is up again to try and get to the airport with the boys and all the luggage. She has a maintenance man again help her carry her sleeping and exhausted child down the stairs. Remember, the cabbies would not help. Luckily, she gets to the airport and is able to get a flight to Travis Air Force base in California, which is 20 minutes from her brother's house. This is her final destination. After 6 more hours on a military plane, she is finally there. She arrived at about 3 pm Okinawa time, on Thursday.

Needless to say, we may be done with Space-A travel for a while. If you do the math, she was able to get to her final destination about 55 hours after her trip started in Okinawa, 19 of which was spent in the air with two children under the age of 3. I will never again tease Joy about her lack of toughness or her struggles with patience. She has my vote for Mother of the Year.