After the passing of my wife of nearly 22 years, I sold my house and my car and moved back to my hometown of Lynchburg, VA to be close to my mother. Tragically, my mother passed away less than 9 months after my wife! I decided to leave my job and travel full-time. I sold most of my possessions and packed a backpack. I got my immunizations, and documents in order. I arranged for mail and bills and emergencies back home and travelled to see many friends and relatives mostly on the East Coast from NYC to Florida.
On August 4, 2015 I drove away from Lynchburg and headed to the Norfolk, VA air base to try to catch a flight that was leaving for Southern Spain. The flight that night left at 8PM and I was not able to get on board as they only allowed 52 people and there were 110 of us competing for the flight. The next day, I tried for a flight bound for Sicily, the island off of Southern Italy but this time they only allowed 11 people on board and I was not one. The next day, I tried again to go to Spain, but the flight had explosives onboard so they decided not to take any civilians.
On August 8, 2015 I drove to an air base in Dover, Delaware and tried to catch yet another flight to Southern Spain. The flight was moved to the next day at 8PM (Sunday). On Sunday, the load master of the flight determined that only 31 people could go because 1 of the 2 bathrooms on board was not working. Another flight was announced to leave at 1AM on Monday and they announced there were 73 available seats. I decided to hang out another couple hours since the roll call would be at 10PM and it was already past 8. The flight was bound for Ramstein, Germany. Luck was with me as I was the 73rd name called! I was finally heading out. I climbed aboard the giant C-5 cargo plane, put in my earplugs, and fell asleep.
