My love hate relationship with TACC

So this trip has been a rollercoaster (not that that is unusual). We started getting delayed a day back home, which I was thankful for because it meant I could stay home with Mrs. one more night. However, since I was leaving the same time she was I was doing preflight stuff and unable to give her the proper send off from home for her deployment. It killed me starting engines and taxiing out while I was watching her and her squadron get on their plane. As much as it sucked I was also looking forward to the trip I was leaving on. Our first stop was in Hawaii but TACC cut our ground time to minimum. We had just enough time to check in, eat dinner, and go to sleep. The next morning we got up and flew a 10.7 hr trip across the pacific to Japan where we were supposed to have a decent amount of time on the ground. I was going to go to a custom tailor shop right off base and get some bag tags made for myself and Lady Speedbird as well as one of our friends in her squadron. TAC strikes again!!!! Upon landing in Japan we were informed we had min turn time yet again....Burger King on the way off base to check in to the hotel and not even time to unwind before we had to go to sleep. The hotel we stayed in was rather nice though. It was up on a hill with a decent view of Okinawa. Which is what you saw when you started reading ;-) The next morning was a whirlwind yet again. We took off from Japan to catch up to another tanker dragging some A-10's and we took over for the first tanker, completing the drag to land here in Utaphao Thailand. Now is where the love part of TACC comes in. First of all I get to come to Thailand, 'nuff said. Second of all they give us 36 hrs on the ground here to wait and take some 18's back to Japan on our way home. This place is shall we say....interesting. The spectrum of stuff one witnesses here is amazing. This is the view from my room here in Pattaya beach

amazing, right? Sorry the picture is kind of blurry my phone doesnt do so well in low light :-/ Also we may be going though a different place in Japan on the way home so I will get to stick another pin in the map :-) With at least two more days left on this trip who knows what could lie in store! Until next time.....

P.S. A special 'round the world kiss to my Lady Speedbird!!!

Merhaba, Turkiye!

Boy is it good to finally be here.  All the preparation and anticipation was killing me!!!  Mr. speedbird was leaving on a pacific-bound trip at almost the exact same time so he was unable to partake in the grand farewell with the squadron's family and friends.  Seeing my husband's jet parked right behind the jet we were to depart on and knowing that he was right there and could not send me off one last time hurt my heart bad.  Luckily enough, a good friend of mine (also a wife of a fellow deployer) was right there by my side helping me through it all!  Nonetheless, I was, at that very point, ready to fly away.  Maybe my heart wouldn't hurt quite as bad.  The trip out here was 3 legs, 5+ hours each, with about 1.5-2 hour turnover at each stop.  My deployment travel day started at 10am CST 23 Feb and ended at 5pm 24 Feb (not counting the 4 hours it took to get to sleep).  I feel tired all over again just thinking about the trip!

Not much to report on this first gloomy day in the old Ottoman Empire, as the day went by relatively quickly (given I woke up at 10am local and it is now 8:30pm).  I am slated to fly very soon which will be nice, but first up, learning my job tomorrow morning!  (Meanwhile the other LTs will be able to relax if not flying tomorrow... bah well!)  Incirlik is a pretty sweet TDY (temporary duty) and I absolutely consider myself lucky to be here.  There are so many of our troops that deploy to much worse locations for much longer periods of time.  Side note: Julia Roberts, Valentine's Day, anyone? Simply touching.  Anywho, since I am here, I am looking forward to taking advantage of all of the off base excursions/tours that we can go on...  the Castle by the sea (Kizkalesi) and the underground cities of Capaddocia, for example.  With that said, hopefully I will really be able to work on my photography habit and start posting some real good stuff....

bye bye for now!


missing mr. speedbird everyday.  day 1.

Goodbye USA, Deployment day tomorrow...

Well, we're heading out tomorrow... yup, we, as in mr speedbird and I are both heading out in totally opposite directions.  He is headed on a trip serving our country in the Pacific and I am headed eastbound to Turkey.  Pretty typical now, I 'spose we should get used to it  ;)  I am extremely anxious about leaving the country for 4 months... more-so leaving my mr.  Most of our relationship we had been on separate parts of the country (moving here to CA meant the first time we would actually live in the same STATE, let alone house).  To keep my mind off of what I'm leaving behind I will be welcoming new and exciting cultures and adventures in Europe.  I will be purchasing a basic Turkey customs/culture/language book so that I can be a little bit acquainted with the country I'll be spending quite some time in.  Don't worry my few followers, I will still blog while I'm there so you can read all about it!

On a side note, i would love to briefly talk about the last couple of things I did here in the US that I just couldn't do while out there.  The hubby and I did get to enjoy our last weekend together in San Francisco...

We scored some Broadway tickets, I mean, broadway just hasn't made it to Turkey just yet... Wicked, the musical was just awesome... the visuals weren't fantastic, but the story and most of the songs were exciting and engaging (though I haven't read the book yet).  It really made me miss my hometown of New York City a bunch (let alone just being in the bustling, diverse, ever-changing city of San Fran).  Now I REALLY have to take hubby to NYC and to another show out there!

And of course, we did some shopping.  Among other things, I finalllllly got myself some Vera Bradley stuff and boy what did I ever do without her in my life?!?  These bags are pretty affordable and just adorable!  I had to stock up before deployment.  Unfortunately I won't be taking them with me (at least the handbag... I love the little new wallet I got!)

Ok, enough bragging... I hate doing that, but just HAD to share these 2 gems.  



Turkey, here I come...

Back home for my Valentine :)

Today is the last day of my post mission crew rest and I figured since I had the extra time lounging around the house, I thought I would share some highlight photos from this past trip.

Our view of some buildings in Istanbul from the maintainance ditching hatch (opening on the very top of my plane's fuselage):

View from my room in Ankara, Turkey:

Here is an amazing view of Mt Etna, Sicily, with Catania in the foreground:

The crew enjoying the Stag's Head pub in Catania!

My crazy new Italian friends Zaira and Alessandro:

The Duomo in the heart of Piazza Dell'Elefante (Elephant Square):

The plane we had to back up for 6-7 days (here sitting in Rome's airport):

Here were the last 2 meals we got on this last trip:

(yummy avocado bacon cheeseburger, steak fries, and white raspberry cake)

(chicken and fruit salads)

We were totally sad to see the flight attendants go when we dropped them off home at Andrews!

This trip definitely topped the list, thus far!  I got to see some really amazing new places, and the crew was just wonderful!!!   Back home, now that both of us are here just in time for Valentine's Day, mr speedbird and I are struggling to find something last minute to do... nonetheless, at least we are both home.  That's what matters!!!!!

Arrivederci!

4 days without internet...

... really takes a toll on someone whose only method of speaking to her family is through those means!  I haven't heard from Mr. Speedbird since the 4th, and here is is, almost the 9th where I am today!  I miss my hubby!  At last, i am connected to the world again and it feels wonderful.  I am currently multitasking on Skype as well, talking to my dad  (whom, thank goodness, just heard from mr. speedbird).  It really shows how dependent we are as a society on internet and cellphones.

I have, in the course of a few days, visited Turkey  (where they held us up for an hour because of passport issues)

Italy (where I feel in love with the country all over again)

and England and may be headed to Haiti before heading home (a last minute possible addition).  This trip has been full of many firsts, such as eating Turkish food, drinking "baby Guinness's" in a Sicilian bar (and using the very small amount of Italian I knew to get dinner for the crew), and learning poker!  Thank goodness I was able to pick up at least 2 shot glasses to build to my collection!  What a jam packed mission this has been, and it's not over!

On a final note, here's another amazing meal, courtesy of the flight attendants:

Hopefully I will be home by Thursday...  we shall see!

Ciao!!

Life as a Gucci Boy: Vol 1 Ch 1

So, here comes the first blog from the KC-10 side of the house. I'll start it off with a couple pictures from my first trip a few weeks ago. The first is an army of hermit crabs on the shore of Wake Island, and the second is a Marine F-18 from VMFA-533 out of South Carolina getting some gas. Im currently on my second trip (First one was a coronet where we brought 6 F-18s home from Japan) on the road to being mission ready. We are flying a chanel mission around the pacific. That means we are doing a regularly scheduled cargo run that is done every couple of weeks. Im currently online talking to someone who is living in saturday night while it is noon on Sunday here. Its funny what the international dateline will do. My last trip I literally had to ask what day of the week it was when we landed back in Hawaii lol. I started this trip out of Travis and went to Hawaii, Guam, Japan, and am now on the return legs back in Guam. We takeoff out of here in about 8 hours and when we land back in Hawaii it will be the same point in time in which I am now posting this blog, noon on Sunday. I felt bad I couldnt get Lady Speedbird her coffee she wanted from Japan, but I didnt even get to leave the airfield and get to the store :-( Though it was all rainy and bleh in Japan it is beautiful here in Guam. Nice and warm, and I had great Thai food for dinner. :-) Im not much for spicy stuff so I had the pineapple fried rice and it was delicious. I then finished out the night by going with some of my crew to hang out for a while. We started off playing pool for a while and eventually ended up at a karaoke bar where we sang until we were hoarse. Oh, and I rode on the thing where they strap you into a round cage and launch you up in the air on bungee coords in between pool and karaoke. =D It was a blast! The point at the top of the bounce where you just feel weightless you can look out over the whole shoreline and the view was amazing. Well time to go for now. 'Til next time!

Steaks on a plane... with some cheesecake too.

Mission number 7 is underway and just before my deployment, yay!  They sure do know how to squeeze everything out of you before you go, haha.  So I am on day 3 (night 2, however you want to look at it) on this Special Airlift Mission that I am flying in support of, and we just got a lovely addition to our crew... flight attendants!  So, to make you even more jealous of how cool my job is, I am just going to share the lovely presentations they will provide for the rest of this trip ;-)

Our lovely chicken quesadilla meal.  This actually followed a KILLER steak, sweet potato (not too fond of that), asparagus, garden salad, and raspberry swirl cheesecake meal a few hours before!  Let me tell you, I'm not the biggest fan of cheesecake but I devoured that thing!  Wow, did we feel pampered.  C-17 crews should be augmented with at least one kick ass flight attendant, ha!  More pictures to come!

P.S.- Here are some German penis ring looking gummy candies that I was introduced to on my last trip.  Random, I know.  But blog-worthy.

Hoşçakalın!