Very busy month during my transition from Korea to my next duty station in the UK. This morning I awake after the first full night of sleep I've had in a while, due in part to jet lag and due in part to just plain having a lot of stuff to do. July was very busy in Korea with a full up exercise, that was actually fun looking back on it, but with moments of not so fun. That was followed by lots of hoops to jump through to get cleared from Korea and make sure the new team was fully briefed to insure continuity of our mission. Was also working to make sure VBS was ready to go (and thanks to some incredible volunteers it was going gang busters when I departed).
So last Thursday I stepped on board the Patriot Express (I miss Korean Air) and started the long flight to Seattle, with a stop over in Japan. It was a beautiful day in Japan. I was one of the first to check in for the flight so I had an incredible seat (very much appreciated on such a long flight) right up on the exit row. Lots of room to stretch out. The plane was old and no frills but the service was very good. They gave us enough food to feed us for a week, which came in handy given that my flight out of Seattle on Alaskan Air was very bare bones -- they had everything if you wanted to purchase it. First time I've ever been asked to "rent" a movie to watch on the plane. They wanted to sell me beef jerky, which I found amusing because I had had a bag of beef jerky on me but customs took it at the agricultural center because I brought it in from oversees. But I did manage to keep my other packaged snacks so I was good. I wasn't about to pay 2 prices for beef jerky or cheese and crackers just because I was at 30,000 feet.
The flight was on time, but somehow they goofed up our gate assignment and we had to sit on the ramp for an hour waiting for the gate. Then they lost 1/2 of my luggage. (It finally turned up two days later. I had just given up when they finally admitted to being mystified and that it might never be found and so I was preparing to go spend the day replacing uniforms when they suddenly said they might have a hint of it -- and going to look they found it - in the airport the whole time. It's tag had come off. So a great relief to have my gear back.)
July was also PT month as it is my birthday month. Pushed hard but still missed maxing the test by 30 seconds on the run but a 99 gets me and entire year before I test again.
So this morning finds me in temporary lodging in DC with my family as we spend a few days saying hello/good bye to our friends and our puppy (who is too old to make the trip to the UK) getting ready to go look for a cup of coffee then to the gym to work out and then church and dinner this evening with friends. UK here we come.
