Rota, Spain
Sunday, June 5, 2011
So we pick up our saga with a flt to Rota at 10 am departing without us due to hazardous cargo, next flt 1300 pm to
Spain the Unicorn has galloped away again so it seems. We arrive at the terminal at 11 am to find two flts one at 1300 and other at 1500 both going to Rota and this is when we meet a nice retired couple Roland and Linda they are tiring to fly out Space A after 2 weeks on cruises around the Med, after a brief introduction they tell me that they have been tiring to get out from
Naples since last Monday...................what hold the press I say did you say last Mon? Yep that wasn't a typo, it's at this point that my heart starts to beat about 30 beats faster than it should and a slight sweat breaks out on my bald head! Now I'm worried as I start looking for commercial flts to Germany and
Spain, some not so bad in the big scheme of things about $200 for both of us if we have to go that route. We wait for the 1300 which is taking some Marines to Spain and of course they only take 3 passengers a young active duty couple and their son. It seems Rota is laughing at me on a daily basis and I'm wondering what I did to her to make her hate me so. The 1500 flt is a C-9 (Modified DC-9) that can carry 50 passengers and cargo, well its delayed about an hour and half, if you think I'm stressing you should have seen Roland and Linda, so far there are 11 other Space A passengers waiting for a ride. The plane finally arrives and we wait for the word and at about 5 pm they finally say all passengers for Rota check your bags and we do and receive our boarding passes at this time, about 20 min later we go thru security and board the vans to take us to the plane. Then the Unicorn bucks us off, and we are told the plane has to go to Sicily to pick up some important cargo but will return to pick us up in about 2 hours, we file back into the terminal and walk down to the pizza place on base and again wait. A little after 6 pm I phone Rota lodging and am able to get a room from someone that didn't make it there by 6 pm, now understand this is a gamble because I have to purchase the room and if the flt doesn't go Im out and some maid gets a early Christmas present when she goes to clean the room. Well it panned out as I write this 30,000 feet above the Med, it's amazing how much leg room they had back in the day and since 13 people are stretched out over 50 seats it's really quite nice. So as you see this journey involves an investment of time but considering we are hitting our 4th country with a total airfare expenditure of zero I don't mind the time investment. So tomorrow we wake late and head over to the town of Cadiz, which is the oldest town in Europe and should be a good day of eating seafood and drinking a little of the local wines. We will try to catch one of the
Dover flts leaving Tue and with any luck be on the East Coast by Wen and then it's the game of finding a flt back to
Colorado Springs which maybe the hardest part since our base doesn't have any regular flts, but we are ready to hopefully catch another Lear Jet headed back to the Springs from Andrews AFB outside of Washington D.C. only time will tell but it appears we have caught the Unicorn finally! Pictures of
Spain to follow on the next installment.
Comments
I believe in Unicorns !
Especially the rainbow ones.
Be careful of those Spanish Women...
The adventure ends for E&E..what a travel you two had..loved the installments! Glad you are heading home.