Childers-Valverde: Enroute to Germany!

Traveling was CRAZY!

First we had about a 12 hour drive to Illinois to drop of the car at the port! It was not much fun, but we did it! It was funny when were at the gas station and only bought 1 gallon of gas! We could only drop of the car with and empty tank. It was sad to see our car gone. We will see it in no time and then the traveling around will start happening.

Then we had a short drive to St. Louis MO. It was about 30 minutes. A little confusion with my passport and my ticket. :/ My Bolivian passport has my single name on it. But with a little talking and wedding certificate they said they will let me travel. Germany made no problem out of it. But the people at St. Louis wanted to! CRAZY. We went to the USO at the St. Louis airport since we had some time to kill. It was a nice little place. The kids got some free hot dogs and mommy and daddy got some free Monsters! They got to play in this awesome little kids room. Got to burn off some steam before the flight.

Our flight to Chicago got delayed which was really scary since we only had about a 45 min layover before our flight to Frankfurt. The flight to Chicago was nice and short. We all slept! Once we got to chicago it was a RACE against time. We had 2 strollers, 2 car seats, 1 diaper bag, 1 computer bag, and one of those little luggage bags with wheels (the carry on ones) and 2 very tired kids! and stupid airport in chicago has bus as shuttles from gate to gate... but they DO NOT have elevators to get down to them. only about 2 flights of stairs. Guy told us the only was to get from gates F to C was a 45 min walk, but with our plane boarding and only 15 minutes to take off... that was an option for us. Luckily some airport workers decided to help us after I yelled at someone :/ LOL But we made it to our flight so thats all that matters!! :D

Shawn got Lucky for his flight to Frankfurt. He got to sit a row behind us and I had two crazy children for a 10 hour flight! But no in all honesty they were great! Jr did obviously get a bit fussy! But thank god for car seats! I was able to keep him buckled in the whole flight! They both ate their dinners fast and watched Lilo and Stich on the Airplane TVs.

We finally arrived in Frankfurt at about 10am in the morning! We got completely LOST at the airport. We had no idea what we were doing. No idea where we were supposed to go. The USO was not in any map or info stall at the airport! :/ After about two hours of just walking around a guy approached us asking us if we were military and yes! He was one of the in processing people that works at the USO. So it all went well from there!

We saw some weird fashion at the airport!!! Man either wore capris or really short shorts... really short shorts.... cannot emphasize enough on how SHORT this shorts were.. and I'm talking in bright colors too! wish i would have gotten pictures :(

Anyway! We had a nice bus ride into Vilseck it was 5 hours long, but we all passed out! Especially the kids. I woke up to some of it and snapped a few pictures. From what I did see.. Every car was either a Mercedes, BMW or Audi. Very rarely you saw 1 or 2 toyotas! and this cars were TINY. Once we got closer to the military bases Vilseck and Graf (which are only 20 min apart) you started seeing the Dodges and Fords. We saw quite a few Mustangs and chargers! but my car is still cooler ;)

Anyway! Ours Sponsor wasn't very punctual or prepared. He even admitted himself at being a bad sponsor. He showed up about 30 minutes late. Not only was he late, but he showed up in a Dodge Challenger. Which he then proceeded to tell us why we brought so much luggage. Anyway he had to call in a different guy who had a truck. We arrived at Vilseck at 6pm... didn't check in at the Hotel in Graf until 830. (remember how i told you its only 20 min from post to post?)

ANYWAY! haha The hotel is really nice, we have one room and the living room has a couch that pulls into a bed. The bedroom has its own TV! its pretty neat. We also have a stove with 2 burners. a nice size little fridge and a dishwasher! :D Its really nice! Way better than the hotel we stayed at in Colorado Springs. I actually wouldn't mind living here for 3+ weeks. But hopefully we will find housing soon!

Shawn should be going back to work on Tuesday and then start in processing on thursday. we can both cannot drive anything until we get our drivers license. which can be anytime for me and 2 weeks from now for Shawn. Which SUCKS! Cause they told him he is fully responsible to get to work on time everyday. But he cant drive? and cant get a drivers license? AND is 20 minutes away :I They said they would help us. So hopefully everything goes alright.

That was our traveling Experience to Vilseck! (Technically Graf since thats where we are staying :) )