End of summer and Space A saga

This is Jonas. So I got the kids back to Cali. I wanted to put up some interesting stats that while traveling I didn't want to think about as I was tired enough as is. I flew 9580 miles in 2 and a half days spending a total of 24 hours of that on an aircraft in the air. We left Yokota, finally, after more than a week of waiting  at 330PM local time Friday afternoon. We arrived at Travis at 430PM Local time Friday afternoon after 12 hours on a plane and a really quick stop in Alaska. The kids did great on the plane. It was a C-5 with about 73 seat on it. We didn't get to sit together on the first flight but the kids were all playing DS and I was reading so it was cool. The flight from AK we did though and we all got some sleep. Morgan was so tired I got to hold her like she was little again and put her to sleep on the plane. The kids were tired but got a kick out of getting a day of their summer back just for flying half way around the world. I got checked in and finally got some sleep. The next day I was craving a burrito from my favorite local dive and headed to Hecho en Mexico. It used to be called Teheban Taqueria but after 9/11 everybody on base started calling it Taliban Taqueria and I guess the owners didn't get the humor of it all. But the Jumbo burrito didn't change at all. It was perfect. I had big plans to go to the gym but was paranoid about missing my flight later in the day so I just hung out in the terminal. I read alot and walked around a bit. I finished Jenny Lawson's book, "Let's pretend this never happened." It was hilarious and will make your childhood seem blissfully normal. It did for me and my childhood has its own oddity. I also talked to a man that survived the Korean war and had some amazing stories and let me know what he felt about the State Dept. Never a dull day in the Terminal. The way Space-A flights work is they release a number of seat on a flight and then they go down the list ranking us all on the Category of Priority and the date and time of sign up. There were a ton of Priority II people ahead of me but since it was just me flying back I was hoping for an odd number of seats and not too many single fliers. But it worked out and I got the very last seat on the first flight out. I just got back this morning safe and sound.
The flight back was in a C-17 and felt much more "Space available" than the C-5. The seats are jump seats that fold down from the wall and line the aircraft side around the cargo. The plane had cool ports labeled HALO OXYGEN and stuff. Also the crew chief gave the most refreshingly straight forward safety demo ever. I will try to convey. "Put your seat belts on. I'll let you know when you can get up. If we lose cabin pressure these cups will fall down. Put the Dixie cup over your mouth and try to breath normal. If the flow of oxygen stops grab another one there will be about a hundred of them dangling around.The lump in the small of your back is your life jacket. If we have to ditch put it on and then pull the tabs. Grab the red tab in one hand and pull the cylinder in the other. Try not to hit yourself in the head with the cylinder." The best part was they don't say "water landing" they say "ditch" and its painted on various things inside the plane. Ex: Doors that say "For Ground or Ditch use only." Too funny. The cool thing is once we hit cruising altitude you can just lay wherever so I laid under the end of a crate that was longer than the pallet it was chained to. The floor was cool but I'm hot blooded so it was nice. Going to the bathroom was like tip-toeing through a slumber party with moms and dads and kids scattered all over the floor. Its good to be home. I miss the kids terribly but we had "the best summer ever" according to the kids so its worth the jet lag. Ashley took an eight hour nap today. Still waiting to see how they handle the jet lag themselves. They suffered no ill effects on the way here but the way back seems harder. But school doesn't start till Friday and they are young so I'm not worried.

I have not blogged as much as I like but read Liz's entries and she does such a good job I usually don't have much to add. I will say I had an interesting cultural experience. We were playing Apples to Apples with some Japanese students and I was teamed up with a teenage boy. The word we were trying match was "Ordinary" and he looked through all the cards we had in our hand and picked "Video Games." I thought this was interesting enough but then our judge for that round picked Video Games (our card) and Olive Oil. That was the toss up for a 45 year old Japanese woman. Which is more ordinary? They have been making olive oil for, I don't know, about a bazillion years on this planet and video games made it into the showdown with olive oil. I don't know if its because they are Japanese or because I'm old and video games are still newfangled to me but I thought it was an interesting little window into the Japanese mind. I love it here and look forward to sharing all we can. Thanks for reading our Blog. I hope its fun. Talk to you soon and if you have requests of things we can report on let us know. The Friendship festival is this weekend. The Base is open to the community and we play host to our Japanese neighbors. I'm excited, it sounds like it going to be a blasty blast. TTFN, Jonas

P.S. Apparently spell check doesn't think "Blasty" is a word. I think this is bogus.