Nana took Beau and I out for breakfast before we left for Baltimore. It was important for us to get up there between noon and 2 so that we could do an early check in at the hotel without getting there too early and then I could get to the Baltimore docks so ship my car before everything closed at 3:30. It was a short trip distance-wise but had very heavy traffic as we made our way through DC and we had a couple of "Are we going to make this??" moments. The hotel room was ready for us and I helped B and Thumper get up to the room before making my way over to the docks. I have to state right now- I don't know that I have ever met a more helpful, genuinely kind group of people than the people that I met at the Baltimore docks. When I had called a company Tuesday morning to arrange for an escort from the dock gate to the shipping terminal, the man who answered the phone started to make the arrangements at $40 an hour but then when he found out I was military, told me that with my dependent ID I didn't need an escort. I would have NO way of knowing this, and it was very nice of him to let me know. When I arrived at the dock gate looking a little anxious, the gate guard who took my ID let me know right away that I was in the right spot, had my paperwork, and had nothing to worry about. She gave me directions and sent me on my way. I went through what I thought was the front door at the Mid Atlantic Terminal and realized that I was actually on the employee side of the counter. Everyone turned, made a joke that it happened all the time, and helped me find where to start. After looking over everything I brought, the man helping me made copies of things that I didn't know I needed copies of and pointed me to where the customs office was. He could have easily told me I needed to go out and get the copies for myself, but he just did them for me and I am so thankful for that. I made a quick trip to the customs office (no friendliness wasted there!) and returned to the MATerminal. The employees there asked how I planned to get back to my hotel and when I told them I was just going to call a cab, they got me the number of the company that would be able to get through the dock gate to come get me or offered to drive me the 2 miles back up to the gate so I could call the cab company I had been given from the hotel desk. I opted for the company that could come pick me up, and gave them a call. While waiting in the sun out front, I called B to let him know I would be back to the hotel soon. There was a form that I needed to scan a copy of that had been stamped by customs and send to the shipping company. I was telling B that I didn't know how I was going to get that done, because the hotel did not have a scanner so we would have to walk to a nearby mall and see if there was a Kinkos there. After getting off the phone, an employee who had been taking her break apologized for overhearing, but offered to take the form up to her office and scan and email it for me! She looked at the form(the only paperwork I had) and then told me that it didn't have the stamp I needed anyway- yikes- and set off to find what I need. Thank you, God, for your guardian angels. Without this woman, I would have left the docks without the correct form (it was incorrect because the customs officer had missed stamping my copy), emailed that form to my shipping officer somehow, and not received notification until it got to Germany that my car was unable to be picked up because of a deficient customs form and was being reshipped to Baltimore! The dock employee found the right form, scanned and emailed it to me and my shipping company, and would barely accept a thank you from my before scooting back to work. I went back out to catch my cab, made it back to the hotel by 3:30, and walked to Quiznos for a late lunch with B and Thumper. I had questioned whether it would be worth it to get a hotel room for just 8 hours since we checked in at 1ish and were gone by 9. I have to say- totally worth the $100. Thumper was able to chill out after the chaotic last 48 hrs of travel, and we were able to just relax. I took a quick nap, watched lots of junk tv (E! network anyone?), reorganized my bags, took a long shower and mentally prepared for the trip ahead. We were in the lobby by 8:45 pm, checked out with lots of well wishes from the front desk staff (Hampton Inn BWI was GREAT!) and took the free shuttle to the military terminal at BWI. I waited on the curb with all of our bags and Thumper while B combed the airport for a luggage cart. We had arrived right after several bus loads of troops deploying had been dropped off, so carts were in short supply. I had been really worried about how Thumperwould like the crate, but Thumper leaped in and snuggled up in her bed, relieved to be safe. To say I was relieved would be an understatement! After a 15 minute search, B returned with 2 carts and we loaded almost everything and wheeled into the terminal to get in line. We started looking for the end of the line, and kept looking, and looking.... from the end of the line we couldn't even see the ticket counter anymore. I waited again with all of the bags, and B took off to find out if there wasn't a separate line for those who were not checking in for a deployment. Fortunately, there was a different line for those who were traveling with families and pets, and there was only 1 person in front of us. I felt pretty guilty wheeling up there, but I tried to think that if people used the correct lines, then the longer lines would actually be shorter. We checked in and dropped off all of our check bags, and the agent approved all of our paperwork for Thumper (phew!) and returned her to us until an hour and half before our actual flight time. At this point, it was 10 pm, and our flight was scheduled for 1:25am. B settled into a bench with our cart of carry on bags and Thumper's crate and called his family, and I took Thumper out to the pet area and chatted with my parents for awhile. We spent the next 2 hours saying our goodbyes to family, snacking on Dunkin Donuts, and wondering what waited for us at the other end of the 8 hour flight. It became clear at midnight that our flight would be delayed when the line of people waiting to check in was still out of sight, so we were able to keep Thumper with us for an extra 45 minutes.
Around 12:35, we put her on the cart to cargo and cleared security to go wait at the gate. I made a final goodbye call to my mom and by the time I hung up it was almost time to board. The plane we were on was an MD-11, and this plane was huuuuuuge! It sat 10 across, and we were in row 45 of 48. We sat on the plane for about an hour and a half waiting for everyone else to board, including many people flying Space Available who had to board at the last minute once it was clear there was room on the flight. My sister, Ellen, stayed awake late in Seattle so she could text me and keep me company. By the time they closed the door and they brought us our "Your pet is on board!" receipt (so nice to get, by the way) it was around 2:45.
B had downloaded all the seasons of my favorite show, Frasier, onto his tablet so we started to watch shows until I nodded off for a half hour before breakfast. I use that term loosely, it was served at around 3:30 am and was a weird omelet thing with sausage and an array of inedible sides. They had also been serving waffles but were out by the time they reached the back of the airplane, FAIL. We both sort of napped for a couple of hours, and then spent the rest of the flight watching Fras and trying to eat a lunch to rival the breakfast food. Luckily, I had picked up plenty of snacks before we left Richmond so we didn't starve. It actually felt like the flight went by reasonably quickly for an 8 hour trip, and I was excited when the pilot instructed our flight attendants to prepare for landing. We sat at the gate for a few minutes while we received instructions on what would not be permitted through customs, then waited for people who were continuing on the flight for a deployment to deplane before we made our way into the passport agent line. This was the most frustrating part of the trip to me. We were waiting with all of our carry on luggage on steps in a slow moving line where we had to regularly move to allow a group of about 10 people in uniform to get down the stairs. This whole time we are listening to the dogs who made the trip barking and crying below the steps we're are standing on. It took at least a half hour of standing on these steps before we were at the passport window. From here, we could see our welcome crew holding a sign welcoming us, and we gave them a wave to let them know who we were. Needless to say, after having our documents approved I made a beeline for Thumper and was so happy to see her little face looking back at me that I couldn't hold back a few tears. Poor B who was already pulling our bags off of the conveyor could just see me drying my eyes and thought something was wrong- sorry B! He arranged for us to get an extra large cart and then loaded up all of our gear. I was so well taken care of on this trip (as I usually am) and I appreciated just being responsible for my carry on bags and my dog. We pushed our cart by the crabby customs agent to let Thumper go use the outside facilities- note to all, you cannot take your dog out inside the airport(oops) and you can't take the crate outside the airport until after customs, so work that out somehow. We had an Army officer argue with the customs agent about it while we snuck the cart out and got Thumper out, and we took our first steps into Germany!
No comments:
Post a Comment