Tuesday, January 5, 2010

2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 17/18: Kuwait Day Off – Travel Home

Today is technically our first and only “day off” on this tour. It’s the only day we aren’t playing a show or traveling. Our flight home leaves at 1am so it’s only “technically” a day off. We spent most of the day relaxing, buying “trinkets”, and catching up on sleep.

We left for the airport around 8:30 pm because we were warned and warned about the increased security. Fortunately and unfortunately the security was no problem at all. We were thankful that we didn’t spend hours standing in line and getting searched but at the same time its not surprising somebody could sneak a bomb on the plane when security was so relaxed. At our first checkpoint, the two “screeners” weren’t even paying attention; instead they were on the phone the whole time. As we all “beeped” without having to go back through the metal detector we were thrilled; only later did it dawn on us that if it was that easy for us to get on the plane it would probably be that easy for a terrorist to get on too. Not real comforting.

Our first flight was the brutal one. It was a 14-hour flight from Kuwait to Washington D.C. Unfortunately; our seats were in economy, definitely not as comfortable as our previous two first class flights. We arrived to D.C. around 6am on Saturday morning, had to go through customs and another couple of rounds of security and then boarded a 7:30am flight for Chicago. Our flight was late leaving the gate in D.C. so we got to Chicago late and had approx. 20 minutes to meet our connecting flight… Everybody got off the plane and sprinted to our next gate two terminals over… as we approached we saw the “delayed” sign and we all breathed a big sigh of relief. We ended up getting on the final flight about 11am.

So… after 9 countries (including airports), 12 shows, 14 flights, tons of new friends, and a million memories we are home safe. This was definitely a trip of a lifetime that none of us will ever forget. We want to thank AFE, all the “contacts” that escorted us around these foreign places, “you” for coming along with us on the trip, and especially all the Armed Forces stationed all over the world.

We are happy to be home for a bit but at the same time none of us were ready for the tour to end… we just had way too much fun.

Our first little dose of “reality” came as we were getting off the plane in Des Moines. Our stewardess got on the microphone and said; “If you have a jacket you might consider putting it on… it is currently -15 degrees outside”….  We'd like to think that this is just Iowa’s way of saying “Welcome Home”. 


One last picture with our Security, Brad and Dave.

Rip-It!!!!!

Chris getting arrested.

We have lots more pictures and videos that we will be posting in the next few days so check back soon!!!

2 comments:

Abby S. and Ryan G. said...

Glad you guys made it home safely and have memories that will last a life time!!! Enjoyed all the blogs! You guys rock :)

Your biggest fans in the Northeast,
Abby and Ryan

Virginia travel blog | Travel destinations said...

Wow!! You have a great travel experience....

Regards,