We took the flight on Monday from Travis AFB, arrived at Norfolk NAS at midnight and stayed at the base hotel. The hotel, Ely Hall, is an old Bachelor Officer's Quarters and reminded me of my old dormitory at FSU - no elevators, radiator heating, and the hallways smelled of mildew. Fortunately the rooms did not have any unpleasant odor. The hotel was decorated beautifully with lots of Southern Charm; someone spent a fortune on lavish draperies with upholstered cornices and tassel fringe galore. The bathrooms were updated, and the bed was super comfy. The gift shoppe was more like a gallery filled with lovely items to browse through.
We enjoyed a nice meal for lunch Tuesday at the Officer's Club, complete with the bread pudding that sets the standard for all other bread pudding anywhere. We had stayed in Norfolk with the family in 1992 during goldenbear70's ACTDUTRA, and we had that bread pudding every day for dessert. We have been talking about it ever since.
Tuesday afternoon we waited four hours for a flight from Norfolk to Rota, Spain but did not make the flight - there were too many active duty people flying with a higher priority. We met a sweet couple on the flight who joined us for lunch and spent the afternoon waiting with us. They were celebrating their fifty-seventh wedding anniversary! They have been everywhere! It was inspiring to hear of their many Space A trips. A family joined us in the DV Lounge who are on their way to live in Bahrain for a tour of duty - the dad will be Chief of Staff there. He was just relieved as CO of The Enterprise. It is interesting and fun to meet new people and share stories as well as pick up travel tips.
We rented a car and drove to Charleston today only to find out that there was a direct flight from Travis AFB to Charleston today. Waaaaaaaaa!
Although we are disappointed to be postponing our trip to Australia until March, someone recently reminded me that Dorothy was right, "There's no place like home."
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