European Adventure, Day 1: Dover

Just to give you a little explanation of the entries that are to follow, Justin and I decided on Saturday night that we should just take the risk, and hop on a military "space-a" flight to Europe. The reason this is a little risky is because it is not uncommon for people to get over to Europe only to find there is no room on the flights coming back. This could be bad as we checked the prices for tickets heading back from Europe, and they were all about $2,000 each. So, you can see we are taking quite a gamble. Our original plan was to head to Italy, but reports of people getting stuck there were pretty high, so we changed our plans to go to Spain. And after a quick conversation with Cousin Ted about what to see in Spain, we both became very excited about our destination.

Day 1:
We were going to try to get up really early and make it to Dover AFB in time for the flight that was heading to Spain at 8:40 am. But let's be honest, Justin and I decided at 7 pm Saturday night to go to Europe, so we didn't exactly get to bed early, and we decided that we'd just aim for the 12:40 pm flight instead.

Here's what was supposed to happen next: We would leave our house at 8:00, drive two hours to get to Dover (Delaware) and hop on the flight to Spain at 12:40.

Here's what really happened: We left our apartment at about 8:55 am. We were cruising right along, an hour later than planned, but still plenty early for the 12:40 roll call. And then, at 9:43, our plans came to a screeching hault--or at least traffic did. Now, we all know that DC traffic isn't known for being kind and accommodating, but this was probably the worst traffic experience I can recall. You know things are bad when passengers are getting out and walking alongside their cars, and when the driver of the car in front of you gets out, grabs his deodorant, applies it and gets back in the car. It literally took us about four hours to go two miles. By living at 9 am we thought we'd for sure make the 12:40 flight, and if not, we thought that there'd be no way to miss the 4:20 pm flight later that afternoon. But...we did! (Actually, we arrived about 4 pm, only to find that the 4 pm flight was canceled.)

Anyway, it turns out that a tractor trailer somehow went over the edge of the Bay Bridge (the one bridge across Chesapeake Bay from Maryland heading toward the beaches of Delaware) so one side of the bridge was closed. And it is kind of a weird sight to see a huge truck in the bay, so there was plenty of rubber-necking.

Long story short, we ended up staying the night in Dover and actually had a great time. We watched the Olympics (which I LOVE), and screamed at the top of our lungs for the USA swimming relay team, and found an amazing little place for dinner. (Justin ate a 24 oz. steak. That is a lot of meat!!)

Now we're off to hang out at the terminal and hope for the best. If we don't get on the flight today, our European vacation may turn into a New England vacation...but here's hoping!