Well, we are in Colorado for the time being. We successfully sorted out our things into five sections: Unaccompanied baggage, Non-temp storage, household goods, donation, and trash.
OK, I say "successfully" tongue in cheek. I think there are things that got packed up that shouldn't have. Like an oil candle I had. But the packers packed it before I remembered it wasn't supposed to go. Just like our house cleaning contract. Luckily, the Housing office was relaxed about it, verified the amount agreed to with our cleaning person, and all was well. Isn't unpacking things and seeing how the shipment turned out part of the fun??
At least I didn't have to pack everything. While I appreciated having everything removed from shelves, wrapped up, put in boxes, loaded onto a truck and sealed into crates in ONE DAY (for household goods anyway), it was frustrating too because the ladies who were delegated to pack our things were terrible. They were slow, they were always on their phone, and the movers had to take frequent breaks because they were always waiting on them. They also delayed our ability to clear post on Wed. It was no big deal to clear on Thursday, as we were still a day ahead of time, but it meant getting into Colorado at 1 am instead of a nice 7 pm.
Yes, we decided driving would be better. We could take more things without paying huge penalties for overweight and excessive baggage on a one way ticket...with extra charges for a cat. The military will reimburse us for travel charges for getting to our next duty station, but not to get to our leave destination, which is what CO would be. And, we can take all of these things without extra charges (aside from the cat) on our flight to Frankfurt as airlines allow more weight and bags for military personnel and dependents flying on orders.
The plus side is, we discovered Otis is actually a really good traveler! He mainly slept in his crate, even though the door was open and chilled. He got out to look around when we stopped for gas and even peed in his litter box when we were on the on ramp to I-80! (Something I imagined took some balance and coordination as the on ramp curved ever so slightly and we were accelerating.) The only part Otis *really* DID NOT like was the storm. Just past North Platte, NE until Ogallala, NE we hit a mother of a storm. Luckily, there was no tornado activity. We had been tracking it on the radio as well. We happened to drive west into it as it was moving east on a stretch of I-80 that is down to 2 lanes in opposite directions. They estimated it dropped 4" of rain an HOUR. With hail. We were going 25 mph. It was the longest 11 miles on I-80 EVER.
And Otis was also letting us know he was displeased with the situation. He yoooowwwwwled and yowled and yowled and yowled. It was loud. At first, we didn't even hear him. Poor widdle kitten, it hurt his widdle ears! After that he was OK. Just restless for the last hour of the trip. He was ready to be out of the car. As were we.
It didn't help that we were pulled over outside of Sterling, CO. Luckily, we weren't going too far over the speed limit, and the officer was sympathetic that we were now "homeless" en route to our next duty station.
If all that wasn't enough excitement, we found out the week of our shipments, the week of our move, right after a Hail and Farewell ceremony, that we didn't have a forwarding address in Germany because our sponsor had heard we were being diverted.
wwwhhhHHAAAAAA?
After several days of phone calls and emails to G1 (a military equivalent to HR), the outgoing LTC, as well as several numbers overseas to the unit - who is currently on block leave and have very few people available, and even fewer with any helpful insight - we discovered that USAREUR (don't ask me what it stands for exactly) is pulling John to work at G4 headquarters. In Heidelberg.
Heidelberg is on the west side of Germany, closer to France.
Upon hearing this news, EVERYONE exclaimed how lucky we are because Heidelberg is GORGEOUS and WONDERFUL!
Here is what it comes down to:
Pros:
Closer to Western European countries for ease of travel
ability to explore more of Germany
I am back on concurrent travel and will fly with John instead of waiting for him to get there and find a house.
I can do the in-processing thing with him as I have never done it before
More housing availability, choices and sizes
No gray area for Otis's paperwork.
Pretty sure John was selected for this job because he's a rockstar.
Cons:
This is not a KD job. He needs a KD job to proceed in his career path.
He needs to politically maneuver his way to only be there for a year and then maybe go to Vilseck (or other KD job) without ruffling feathers or being the complainer guy who doesn't really want to be doing his job.
One extra move instead of moving there, then moving back.
Being last minute and changing ALL plans already made in preparation for moving to Vilseck.
Aside from that...it should be fun!
Remember my post when I first announced that we are "(for now) moving to Vilseck!" and I explained that the "for now" part is because the Army likes to change it's mind?
See, I wasn't lying.
As always, I'm along for the ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment