The terminal and a police car

Matt and I decided long ago that a good portion of his 60-day post-graduation leave would be spent on a European honeymoon. A major enabler to this plan was using the military's Space-A program to get over there. Basically, Space-A (also known as "hops") is like flying standby on a commercial airline... except you're flying standby on Air Force planes. And, oh yeah, it's FREE!

So, we used my frequent flier flights (say that three times fast), flew to Dover, Delaware, and began the long wait to catch a flight to Germany. Since we didn't have a car to explore off-base, we spent a lot of time in the terminal and at the commissary (grocery store), BX (convenience store) and playground.
Since we signed up early, we were at the top of the long standby list and should have been on a flight the first day. But after waiting all day, the flight was canceled due to mechanical problems. On the second day, we were supposed to be on the first flight to Germany (which was supposed to leave at 8 p.m.), but after waiting all day again and even busing out to the plane and sitting on the flight line for over an hour, the flight was canceled due to mechanical problems.

For the record, we were starting to feel like we were in the movie "The Terminal," which we ironically watched for the first time while spending hour #39 in the Dover terminal. Yet we were actually having a grand ol' time making friends, playing games, and saying "Hi, I'm in Delaware."
However, there was one little problem--after our flight was canceled, we called the hotel on base to book a room only to discover it was already full. It was 10:15 at night and we were stranded in Dover, Delaware. We didn't want to pay an obscene cab fare (save it for Europe, right?) so we hopped on the computer, found a hotel that Google said was only 3 miles away and just 1/2 mile outside a gate on the other end of the base, and started walking.
We faithfully followed our Google walking directions and got 2.5 miles down the road before coming to a dead end. At the same time, a police car pulled up next to us and asked where we were going... and then informed us that said gate had been closed for years. We were 2.5 miles in the wrong direction and it was now after 11:00 p.m. Luckily, the cop took pity on us and let us hop in the back seat of her car.

Remind me not to be a criminal. Also not to trust Google walking directions. The seat was plastic, the leg room was non-existent, and it was hotter than Hades back there. But, it was a ride (and great material for a future truth-or-lie game: back of a police car on our honeymoon) and we were grateful.

And the next day, well, it deserves a post all its own. Stay tuned :-)