Cheers!!

Cheers!!

Today, Kelly had a plan of action to get us further along with all of these boxes and immediately steps into a puddle of water in the bathroom.  We’re thinking its the toilet leaking again, but, nope.  Matt and I did a good job there.  Naw, there’s water coming from underneath the cabinet and the bottom of which is completely rotten through.  So I tore the whole cabinet out to get into the wall to find a leak in the hot water line to the sink.  It looks like that has been going for quite some time as the water has soaked up the gypsum behind the wall about 6 inches.  As for the sink from that cabinet, I had Matt use it to replace the front bathroom sink which had rusted out!!?!!  How does that JUST happen??!!  I’m not happy with our rental manager as I was expecting them to keep this sorta crap from happening.

Now I’m looking for a plumber to come in and fix this little leak as I don’t know how to weld/solder/seal copper pipes.  But I must admit that I’m still digging the joys of home ownership as this is MY HOUSE!!

Cheers!!

Cheers!!

We’d spent the night in the Sheraton at the Brussels airport so we wouldn’t have to get up at oh dark thirty.  Great idea.  But the troubles started almost as soon as we got to the Delta counter.  We were told that the hard cat kennels we had for Spot and Kit-Kat were not allowed and would have to buy the Delta -approved SOFT SIDED kennels!!!  Of course, no one told us about this before we got to the airport, so there we are, chucking out  €30 per!!  Of course, Delta was nice enough to allow us to ship the kennels free.  But, wait, there’s more!!  When I made the reservations with SATO in January, I was told we’d have to pay the USD$100 cost for the cats.  OK, fine.  But when we showed up at the counter, after buying our nice, new soft sided kennels, we were told that it would now cost €400 to bring the cats!!  That’s over USD$500!!!  Needless to say, Kelly was SO not diggin it.  Fine.  As we start loading the bags on the conveyor belt, the agent tells me that my Pelican case is too heavy!  After a bit of haggling, she finally gets it that I’m traveling on military orders and it’s OK.  Finally, whilst waiting at the gate, the gate agent announces for Passenger Tucker to approach the gate for a message.  When I do this, I asked to follow the security folks to answer a question about our bags.  Thinking my run of bad luck was done, I could resist asking the question, “What seems to be the problem, officer?”  Seems that they think there is some sort of flammable liquid in the bag.  I tell that that that’s strange as we’re not smokers.  So, they take me to the back where Nyssa’s bag is on a table and the security folks want me to open it up.  Sure as shit, inside a ziploc is an almost empty lighter fluid can!!??!!  After they take that out of the bags, surprisingly, they let me return to the gate.  Nyssa said that she’d forgotten to throw it out at the hotel…

The flight across was uneventful and un-meowed, too.  Seems that Spot was a meowing terror on the flight over but was quiet this time.  Kit-Kat did make her displeasure known occasionally but wasn’t being rude.  For those who don’t know, international flights into the US require a US passport & customs check at the first airport you land in.  As we were flying into Atlanta, that meant we had to go through passport control, get our bags and then get through customs.  No problem.  Right up until my Pelican case and Nyssa’s bag didn’t come off the plane!!  After waiting until no-one else was waiting for bags, we had to hustle to make our connection to Fayetteville.  But first, we had to get through customs which meant we had to get “extra” attention as we had cats.  Fortunately, that went quickly but the line to get back through screening was horrific! After stripping almost naked, the TSA dude wanted the cats to be taken out of their cages and hand carried through the metal detector!!!!!  Really??@@!!???  They wanted me to take two crazed, dazed and quite displeased cats out of their soft sided cat kennels and hand carry them in the world’s busiest airport!!!  So, I call for Matt to come back through the checkpoint to carry one of the cats across, which we were able to do without gunfire or rabid cat attack.  After that, we had to do an OJ to get to our gate.  BTW, an OJ like this one not that one but I did think of it!!  And the kids didn’t get the reference either!  Afterwards, we were able to get to Fayetteville, the rental car and into our hotel rooms without further drama.

And that was just the first day!!

Trying to get through the transition at Bragg was just as painful as I expected it to be but was surprised that they just haven’t had that many folks PCSing from overseas to retire at Bragg.

Today, however, it just went from bad to worse.  Seems that Bragg wasn’t gonna deliver our furniture as scheduled.  We’d have to wait until Tuesday of next week.  Needless to say, Kelly was ready to pop a blood vessel.  What Bragg transportation was saying was that because we hadn’t called their office to schedule the delivery appointment.  I’d made these arrangements back in January and now we were screwed.  After talking to the supervisor of the section and seeing that she just wasn’t gonna help, I get her boss’s name.  Eventually, I learn that the lower supervisor was under the impression that her office had final say in the scheduling of delivery, regardless of whatever was on the transportation documentation.  The uber boss agreed with me that this simply wasn’t the case.  This was especially true as the long term storage goods were being delivered right when I had the uber boss on the phone!!  I explain to her that I wasn’t interested in the “who shot john” of how we got into this situation but just wanted my delivery to calm Kelly.  Finally, after about 4 hours of working the system, Bragg was able to “help me out” by getting the delivery company to reorganize it’s schedule to accommodate us.  Fine.  We’re screwing up ya’ll’s system.  Just as long as ya’ll delivery Kelly’s toys.

So, at the end of the second full day of being back in the States, I’ve had my tool toys delivered and it seems that we’ve dodged a bullet in getting furniture scheduled for tomorrow.  Oh, BTW.  Tomorrow at 1300, I’m supposed to see the Retirement Services Officer to sign out of the Army and start Terminal Leave.  Hmmmm.  What are the chances of that??

Cheers!!

Cheers!!

Cheers!The last part of the Tucker’s European Vacation was to complete the tour of the Three Kings and the Scottish whiskey tour.  We started with an overnight ferry from Zeebrugge to Rosyth, outside of Edinburgh.  This was better than the Athens-Heraklion ferry because we didn’t have to get up at 5 to get off the ferry at 6.  This ferry didn’t dock until 13oo which was OK because we were able to get right into Edinburgh.  We spent the rest of the 27th and the morning of the 28th in Edinburgh and then drove up to Inverness by way of Dundee, the birthplace of Scotland’s Favorite Son, Robert Burns.  The morning of the 29th, we toured the best of the Scottish single malt whiskey distilleries, Glenmorangie.  A quick note:  I’d entertained the thought of testing the different types of whisky whilst living overseas, however, when the bottles get above €20 a bottle, I passed.  When a Scot buddy of mine offered to teach Jon and me about proper Scottish whiskey, I was happy for the chance.  Once it was over and done with, I found out that of all the single malt whiskeys, including the expensive 18 and 21 year old ones, I really preferred the bog standard Glenmorangie Original both straight and with a wee bit of water.  So, at the end of the distillery tour, they let you sample a wee dram of Glenmorangie.  Not just the cheap stuff either.  Nope, we got a bit of the GOOD stuff, Lasanta.  That is now the Uber special occasion sippin whiskey.  Not just the “Look at me, I’m an Eagle Scout” or “I graduated from school” special occasions, either.  Nope.  I’m talking about the “Look at me, back in the STATES!!” type occasions!!  And just one, wee sip, not the drunken frat house guzzle junkie!!  For the record, Kelly and I goth just tasted the whiskey, Matt and Nyssa were very happy to finish our samples!!

We then went down to Oban and skirted the shores of the Lock Ness.  That single track road was THE best road in Europe but only because I was never able to get onto Top Gear’s Best Driving Road.  I have a GoPro video of the road but won’t be able to get it posted until I get my editing computer next week or so.

After Oban, we ending up in Glasgow for the night.  Admittedly, a couple of stops were just for the “block check” but Matt and I did spend some time in an Official Rangers FC store.  I had to get me scarf to hang on Maggie’s passenger seat with my Liverpool FC scarf!  That afternoon, we caught the ferry over to Belfast because I wanted to see Shankill Road and the murals.  I have to admit that my spidy senses were tingling driving down the Shankill, especially after seeing the police car that had more armor on it than an MRAP!!  We quickly left Belfast after seeing a couple of murals and headed towards Dublin.

We ended up spending two nights in Dublin and it was great.  The first night, we ate at the Bloody Horse and watched the Spain-Portugal WC match.  Not too many better places to watch a football match than in an Irish pub!  The next day, we wandered the city checking out Trinity College, the Book of Kells and the Guinness Brewery, where Matt earned his certification in the proper pulling of a Guinness Stout!!  The 30th we spent down in Kilkenny Castle and caught the overnight ferry from Dublin to Liverpool.

In Liverpool, we saw Anfield, home of the Liverpool FC, John Lennon’s boyhood home and killed a pigeon.  Yup, deader than shit.  A suicidal pigeon tried to beat Maggie across the road and lost.  Scared me!!  Kelly wanted me to keep on of its feathers as a souvenir!?!  We then drove over to Caernarfon, Wales but along the way were attacked by a rampaging sheep that had jumped its fence!  Yeah, I could see the look in its face as it cleared the hedge, “I’m free!!  Oh, shit!!”  Fortunately, it was able to avoid us as Maggies’ excellent brakes stopped us short.  Eventually we made it to Caernarfon and saw the castle and Royal Welch Fusilier Museum.  That evening we stayed in a B&B in Hay-on-Wye, the city of books.  Luckily for us, Kelly didn’t wanna see all 26 of the used bookstores in the village, just the best dozen, or so!

Finally, on the 3rd, we plowed back down to Dover, caught the ferry and wandered home to Kerkrade.  We took the 4th as a down day and on Monday, the 5th, I put Maggie on the boat to ship her home.

Well, what a trip!!  Now, I’ve gotta get goin and finish cleaning house.  Tomorrow, the inspector is coming to clear us from the quarters so I can start another trip: the Tucker’s Grand Return to the United States of America!!

Cheers!!

Cheers!!

Cheers!!