August 9th

We’re finally here, so much has happened and it’s hard to know where to start. I think I last put something on there when we were reaching the Azores.

After being there for less than 24 hours we got through the PAX terminal (Dale’s great fear) with no problems what so ever and made it to Germany in much faster speed than expected, thanks to Chris McDonald!

The best and greatest crew ever that flew us all across the Atlantic finally landed at Ramstein AFB in the middle of the night. All the par shooters and us got off and while they loaded a bus to lodging on base we called a can cab and loaded all our 8 A3 bags and everything else to go to our hotel.

I just have to mention the crew. The best loadmasters in the world Matt and Adam, with their apprentices Heather and Carlos, made sure we were as comfortable as we possibly could. All of them, crew chiefs, navs, pilots and engineers really impressed me on this trip and I’m so proud to have a small part of the 52nd Roos and the best squadron on earth!

In Germany, Kaiserslautern we’re settling in at the Hotel America. A small very cozy hotel with no AC and the microwave out in the laundry room!!! We were so hungry we had to eat something when we got there and we heated some microwavable food up at 3am and got to bed totally exhausted. Those 8 bags were not easy to haul and this was just the first leg.

Breakfast was served and it almost brought tears to my eyes. So not American with real silver ware, coffee cups on a saucer, cheese, ham and marmalade for your bread and two different kinds of yogurts.

The first night’s chauffeur on the taxi ride was a very friendly German feller so we thought we’d use the same company to get a ride to Kaiserslautern train terminal. Big Mistake!!! The lady that came this time was a grumpy, rude and not service minded at all!! But she got us the train station and I guess that’s what’s important…

We had to print our tickets there, and I got in to the ticket counter, waited for my turn for about 10 minutes and when it was my turn the lady at the counter told me with a snotty voice that she couldn’t help me but I had to get the tickets out of a machine out in the hall. Since my German isn’t the best it was a struggle to understand what buttons to press and where to go on the machine but after a while I got the tickets and we started the haul again to the right platform.

4 different trains, 8 different hauls, totally rude people, no help, Erik falling out of his bunk bed in the middle of the night on the night train with a huge bruise on his back, bathrooms that don’t work, 24 hours straight, blisters on our palms, fingers and hands, Syssa throwing up in the walkway on the last train…. A summon of the last 24 hours on rails, until we finally reached my hometown of Norrköpng and my two cousins Stefan and Peter greeted us at the platform.

WE ARE IN SWEDEN!!!