Dailey Family Adventure
June 2014 — London
We made it to London! The base has a shuttle that goes to London twice a day and drops you at Heathrow Airport. You then have to find your own way to your hotel or London or wherever you are going. As London is quite expensive, we opted for the tube way of travel. That is NOT an easy system to navigate, but we managed and were able to get to our hotel, then to the British National Museum and finally to see Big Ben and the London Eye. We were all exhausted by the time we were done with the museum though, so we opted to come back to hotel and watch football! Tyler was so excited to see the Rosetta Stone as he just finished studying about it in school. I posted pics from the last several days. Give the page a bit of time to load as there are a lot! Cheers!
June 2014 — The UK So Far
Tyler’s Take….
Hello! Tyler here, and I'm here to tell you about our trip to the UK so far. From the beginning of the trip to now, I've had a great time. From the front flips into the Travis swimming pool, to the priories of England, it has been a great experience for me. Some of my favorite things to do so far have been: jumping in to the Travis pool, waiting with suspense at the Travis airport hoping to catch a flight, visiting 1,000 year old castles and cathedrals, and having loads of tea! As I'm typing this, we're in the Space A military base in Mildenhall watching France demolish Switzerland and soaking up wifi like it’s life support. Anyway, that's all the time I have for now, cheerio! (hehe, cheerio...)RJ’s wRitings….
Some of my favorite parts of the trip have been going to the pool at Travis, getting to see the cockpit of the KC-10 military place we flew to the UK in and talking to the pilots about the flight instruments that control the plane, going to the Travis air museum and getting a poster that has a picture of a plane on it.Ray’s Ramblings….
Things I have learned since being in the UK.Number 1. Contrary to what I have been told, there are no scantily clad women here. It almost seems everybody here wears a parka. The person next to me could be 22 or 82 for all I know. That being said, the people here are super friendly. They will stop in their tracks to let you know where the closet petrol (gas to you Americans) station is. Put up with my nonsense of not knowing how to work the pump… (There was no payment for my credit card at the pump so I went inside to pre-pay, but the lady looked at me like I was crazy for a minute and then said, “Oh, you must be from the states… over here you pump, then pay.” with a British toothy smile.)
Roundabouts, roundabouts, I will be dreaming of roundabouts. Every couple of miles there is a roundabout. They have all kinds of roundabouts. Some with lights, some with stuff in the middle, some with a flat middle, some with single lanes, double, and even triple lanes. Some appear to have multiple lanes that aren’t marked and people are switching lanes in the roundabouts. I have only pulled a Chevy Chase once so far, but there have been many times I have entered the roundabout of death with a high shrieking sound, hoping to make it out the other side. Just writing about it makes me dread the next time I enter one. Thank God tomorrow is a bus/subway/subway switch/walk to a hotel in London day.
And speaking of God... If some of you think some of my self-reflection moments are sacrilegious, let me tell you something. Far worse things have been done in those churches. Beheadings of kings, queens, and bishops have occurred in those hallowed halls. So deal with it. Though looking at my pics, I think I would have been a killer priest!
Well that’s all for now. I can’t wait to go to London which I have been told is a super happening place. Sounds like London just can’t wait to see me! CDR Dailey signing out.
Lisa’s Lot....
Apparently Ray only learned one thing in the UK. There is so much to catch up on. I will try to make it short… The flight we were sure to get on to Hawaii was delayed for at least a day, but the next flight out was to the UK, so we jumped on! RJ, Tyler, and I got to go up to the cockpit and chat with the pilots. Too bad we could only see clouds, but a fun adventure anyway.After a day of catching up on sleep, we rented a car and Ray learned how to drive all over again. The high shrieking sound was the three of us screaming through the turns! Thank goodness all the roads are small and the speed limit is low! We are not letting Ray drive to London as we all want to continue living.
I’m surprised Ray didn’t mention anything about the radar museum he took us to. I’m pretty sure we were the only ones under 70 years old visiting. If you ever have trouble sleeping, give Ray a call and have him tell you about it. I guarantee you’ll be asleep in no time!
We made it to the east coast of the UK to a town that had a video arcade on every corner. I am not exaggerating at all. The weird part was that they were all empty. It was a strange place, but we stayed at a cool little mom and pop B&B.
We have visited a few different castle and cathedral sights, which are so cool. No picture we took will ever compare to seeing them in person. It is hard to impress upon the children that the cathedrals were built close to 1000 years ago. At the Norwich Cathedral we happened upon a film set. The BBC was filming Tulip Fever starring Judy Dench (although we didn't see her). They took a break at 6pm and we got to sit through service and hear the organ and choir in this immense cathedral. It was really amazing!
There are a few new pics on the Pics page, more to come later today hopefully. Off to London we go! Cheers!
June 2014 — Space-A Adventure
RAYS TAKEWAY ON THE VA-K
Yahoo here we go on our awesome trip. Where are we going?? Well... it looks like Spain and Portugal, nice warm beaches, low cost, beautiful uhhhh scenery. Yes sir, that where we should be going. Uh oh, the flights to Spain have all but disappeared except if we can leave Seattle and get on the Dover, Delaware flight we can make it to Germany. Well, that's no southern piece of heaven but Zie Vaterland haz sie AutoBahn und das ist gut! UH OH... Dover flight cancelled. So now we are paying (in air miles which Lisa feels are "free") to get to Travis (between San Fran and Sacrament) so we can go to Guam. Yeah Guam. The land of incredible beaches, Spanish heritage, great snorkeling, and beautiful wom... I mean wonders. So within 10 minutes of getting on that flight a family of 6 shows up and bumps us off that flight. GRRRRRR. Ray is angry at the family of little urchins soaking up my free seats to Guam. So.....we get a place to stay on base and off to the Jelly Belly Factory followed by the Budweiser tour factory. OOPS the car rental place is closed and the busses don't run on Sunday. So now we are off to the military mini-mall to get food, followed by a walk to the air museum where we got to see the planes that Grandpa Cal used to fly over the hump and then we went to the giant outdoor pool. That's where I swam with da fam and read my book. It's so nice where the weather is 80 degress and sunshiny. So at the end of the day we are looking at Monday to Hawaii (with a stop in Alaska?) or take a hop on a very limited space (only 10 seats available) to London. What to do, what to do. This is CDR Dailey signing out. See you again when the wifi is restored!
WHAT REALLY IS GOING ON....
A few months ago, we decided to take a couple weeks off and test out our Space-A privileges. Space-A is a means by which members of United States Uniformed Services are permitted to travel on aircraft under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Defense when excess capability allows. The first catch is that bases only post flight schedules 72-hours in advance of departure. The second catch is that there is a hierarchy to getting on the planes based on the type of leave you are on and when you sign up. Finally, flights can be changed or cancelled without notice.
Ray and I had been watching flights out of McChord and Travis for weeks and there were tons headed off to Europe... mainly Germany and Spain. We figured it would be easy to hop over to Europe. Ray was especially excited about Spain and scantily clad women. Within 72-hours of our departure, however, flights dried up. There was one on Saturday to Dover, and another from Dover to Germany with tons of space. However, by 6 a.m. Saturday morning the flight to Dover had been moved to Sunday and eventually dropped off the schedule.
We had talked about driving to Travis (located between San Francisco and Sacramento), but I found we could fly to San Francisco on Saturday using air miles and it would only cost $70. No, I do not think miles are free, but it makes sense to use them and get to Travis a day earlier without spending two days driving, one night in a hotel, and how knows how much in gas and food! There was a flight leaving Travis on Sunday morning headed to Hawaii and on to Guam, so we thought we'd head west instead. So off to San Francisco we went.
5 a.m. Sunday morning came awfully early but we made it to the passenger terminal and marked ourselves present. Being Sunday, everything in the terminal was closed, but a nice retired man was nice enough to make me coffee even though our arrival meant he was bumped off the flight! But, as fate would have it, there were only 10 tentative seats available and by 8:30 a.m. we had been bumped too.
So, what do you do when you're stuck on an air base with no car? We thought we take a bus into town, but in this little place no busses run on Sunday. We eventually found the Travis Air Museum and topped it off with a dip in the base pool. (Check out the new Photos page for a couple pics from our adventure so far.) We ended the day with dinner at the mess hall - which at least was better than the food court food we found for lunch!
We are headed back to the passenger terminal tomorrow morning and hopefully off to either Hawaii or the UK. Who knows where we'll end up but the adventure will continue!
Yahoo here we go on our awesome trip. Where are we going?? Well... it looks like Spain and Portugal, nice warm beaches, low cost, beautiful uhhhh scenery. Yes sir, that where we should be going. Uh oh, the flights to Spain have all but disappeared except if we can leave Seattle and get on the Dover, Delaware flight we can make it to Germany. Well, that's no southern piece of heaven but Zie Vaterland haz sie AutoBahn und das ist gut! UH OH... Dover flight cancelled. So now we are paying (in air miles which Lisa feels are "free") to get to Travis (between San Fran and Sacrament) so we can go to Guam. Yeah Guam. The land of incredible beaches, Spanish heritage, great snorkeling, and beautiful wom... I mean wonders. So within 10 minutes of getting on that flight a family of 6 shows up and bumps us off that flight. GRRRRRR. Ray is angry at the family of little urchins soaking up my free seats to Guam. So.....we get a place to stay on base and off to the Jelly Belly Factory followed by the Budweiser tour factory. OOPS the car rental place is closed and the busses don't run on Sunday. So now we are off to the military mini-mall to get food, followed by a walk to the air museum where we got to see the planes that Grandpa Cal used to fly over the hump and then we went to the giant outdoor pool. That's where I swam with da fam and read my book. It's so nice where the weather is 80 degress and sunshiny. So at the end of the day we are looking at Monday to Hawaii (with a stop in Alaska?) or take a hop on a very limited space (only 10 seats available) to London. What to do, what to do. This is CDR Dailey signing out. See you again when the wifi is restored!
WHAT REALLY IS GOING ON....
A few months ago, we decided to take a couple weeks off and test out our Space-A privileges. Space-A is a means by which members of United States Uniformed Services are permitted to travel on aircraft under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Defense when excess capability allows. The first catch is that bases only post flight schedules 72-hours in advance of departure. The second catch is that there is a hierarchy to getting on the planes based on the type of leave you are on and when you sign up. Finally, flights can be changed or cancelled without notice.
Ray and I had been watching flights out of McChord and Travis for weeks and there were tons headed off to Europe... mainly Germany and Spain. We figured it would be easy to hop over to Europe. Ray was especially excited about Spain and scantily clad women. Within 72-hours of our departure, however, flights dried up. There was one on Saturday to Dover, and another from Dover to Germany with tons of space. However, by 6 a.m. Saturday morning the flight to Dover had been moved to Sunday and eventually dropped off the schedule.
We had talked about driving to Travis (located between San Francisco and Sacramento), but I found we could fly to San Francisco on Saturday using air miles and it would only cost $70. No, I do not think miles are free, but it makes sense to use them and get to Travis a day earlier without spending two days driving, one night in a hotel, and how knows how much in gas and food! There was a flight leaving Travis on Sunday morning headed to Hawaii and on to Guam, so we thought we'd head west instead. So off to San Francisco we went.
5 a.m. Sunday morning came awfully early but we made it to the passenger terminal and marked ourselves present. Being Sunday, everything in the terminal was closed, but a nice retired man was nice enough to make me coffee even though our arrival meant he was bumped off the flight! But, as fate would have it, there were only 10 tentative seats available and by 8:30 a.m. we had been bumped too.
So, what do you do when you're stuck on an air base with no car? We thought we take a bus into town, but in this little place no busses run on Sunday. We eventually found the Travis Air Museum and topped it off with a dip in the base pool. (Check out the new Photos page for a couple pics from our adventure so far.) We ended the day with dinner at the mess hall - which at least was better than the food court food we found for lunch!
We are headed back to the passenger terminal tomorrow morning and hopefully off to either Hawaii or the UK. Who knows where we'll end up but the adventure will continue!
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