March 29: The Long Road Home
Like most of the return trips we make during the regular season, it was still dark when we woke up. Dee and I got ready and checked to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything. We headed downstairs and sat in the lobby waiting for everyone else. We all seemed to be dragging a little bit.
Our tour bus had been replaced with our little school bus, so the girls formed a couple of assembly lines and started hauling our luggage onto the bus. Since I think our luggage total had increased, some of the girls had to sit on the floor. As we were leaving the base, our driver learned that he only had to take us to Sigonella's flight line and not back to Catania. Luckily, we cleared that up before we got too far.
The airfield and passenger terminal is in completely different section of the base, so we took a few winding roads from the main area out to the airfield. I only mention winding, because once again we had to keep an eye on any wayward bags that might topple.
When we got the terminal, we waited while Maj Filzen went over the manifest with one person. Then we went through the metal detector ... with all the luggage. There were only about three other people working in the terminal at that time of the morning, but I felt really bad because the detector was just wailing at each and every one of us.
From there, we checked in and got our ticket for a direct flight from Sigonella to Peterson. We had to wait for a little bit while the crew finished all their pre-flight stuff, so we made ourselves sandwiches and watched the morning news. One of the terminal staff recommended that we use the restrooms there, since there would be "limited restroom capabilities" on the plane. Aren't those three words everyone loves to hear before a 14-plus hour flight?
Finally we were ready to board and we headed outside to a shuttle bus that would take us to our C-130. There were two `regular' people flying back with us - not related to the flight crew or our team. We hauled our luggage up the stairs and reformed the assembly lines to store it in the wooden crates at the center of the plane.
The inside was situated just like the planes we took this year to New York and San Diego, but they had added a few rows of two-wide airline seats to the front. There was the crew table on one side and these seats on the other. In the middle of the plane were web-seats for the girls. The `regular' couple took the front row row, Dee and I took the next and Coach White and Coach V took the third row.
The crew had rigged a good-sized television up against the side wall next to their table and had a DVD player attached, so our three rows could watch movies with them (or watch the movie and read the subtitles). Because we were on the flight, they said they had the `family-friendly' DVD collection of "Cars", "Pirates of the Caribbean" and the like. Or they're all really big kids at heart and that's what they watch on every Trans-Atlantic flight!
Since we had gotten our safety briefing and earplugs on the shuttle, we were soon ready to leave. That's why I love traveling on military-air. If you're ready to go and the crew is ready to go ... you go! The crew started with "Cars", but I was asleep before too much time had lapsed ... so, I still haven't seen the entire movie. The temperature varied in the front of the plane from really cold to really hot, but I'm not sure how it was in the back.
When I woke up a few hours later, some of the girls were still sleeping, but quite a few were studying. That was a sure sign that the vacation was over and we were on our way home. I decided to get some work done as well and pulled out my laptop.
We started using a new scoring system in men's gymnastics this year, so I decided to create a list of every score we had received all year. I already had meet-by-meet comparisons for each guy, but this would be our new `all-time' record book. Anyways, after four hours, two computer batteries and 10 sets of results that included six guys competing in up to six events, I came to the conclusion that I was crazy.
But, I got it finished and it looks good ... if I do say so myself! They crew had moved on to the second "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, so I watched part of that during the final bit of our flight. Just as the movie ended, we started our approach into Colorado Springs. The plane touched down and we taxied for a little bit, coming to a stop by the terminal at Peterson. The bright sunlight was a little blinding after being in the nearly windowless plane for the last 14-15 hours, but the breeze and warm temperatures felt good.
The assembly line was formed once again as we got our luggage off of the plane. Dee got picked up by Mark and a very happy Gannon, but the rest of us loaded up the blue Air Force bus for our trip to the Academy to officially conclude our Italian Adventure.
Arrivederci!!
