In the World of Life Experiences, Celebrate Amazing Accomplishments

Dancing Elephants Press Weekly Prompt 33 of 52

Dear Reader,

I would like to thank Dr. Pretti Singh for the prompt for this article. She presented it to the Dancing Elephant Press in her story https://readmedium.com/life-and-its-precious-memories-3933a982c428. The prompt is “share a precious memory.”

I spent many years on active duty in the United States Air Force. During that time my family and I moved nine times. We had assignments in Ohio, Guam, Grand Forks North Dakota, Hawaii, Alaska, Lajes Field Portugal, Panama City Florida, Minot North Dakota, and Fort Walton Beach Florida. The times we moved were frequent enough to allow me to learn new skills in each location and for us all to make friends in most of these locations.

I remember getting orders to proceed (permanent change of station) in the Air Force) to Terceira Island, Azores Archipelago, Portugal. The archipelago is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean about 870 miles from Portugal’s coast. It is an autonomous region comprised of nine islands with about 250,000 people.

While in the military, moving from one location to the next is quite normal and it can be somewhat stressful. We lived in Alaska then and had been there for 7 years. We had been there long enough that it had become our home. Our 2 oldest children finished High School there.

We could not allow the third child to graduate in that location. She had finished 10th grade and we had just received orders. That meant she would need to say goodbye to great friends in Alaska and make new friends when we got to Portugal. We were a bit heartsick over this but knew it was for the best.

None of us wanted to leave Alaska. As it turned out at the end of our tour she did graduate from High School. She said that the school was small enough that she got to know most of the people. She ended up loving the experience.

Our date to move to Portugal came in July 1998. The Air Force set up chartered flights for us to fly from Anchorage to Baltimore and from Baltimore to the Azores. None of us had been to that country so we were not sure what we would be facing on the other end of our move.

Moving entailed packing suitcases, a pet dog, and a pet cat. We needed to get permission from Portugal to bring the animals. We had to get a veterinarian to provide us with a letter that stated the animals had been tested and were disease free and that their shots were current. Without that letter, the animals could not enter the country.

We learned that the only things we would be able to take along with us were clothing and a few other items such as sheets, comforters, pots, and pans., kitchen wares, towels, and things of that sort so that we could set up our living arrangements. These items except for our clothing would be shipped to Portugal and we would get them there.

We would leave all our furniture and many of our other belongings in storage in Anchorage. The furniture we would be using while we lived in the Azores would be government furnished. Please don’t think this stuff is brand new and very comfortable because neither was true of the furniture, we had issued to us.

We were told that when we finished the Portugal assignment and moved back to the United States, we would then arrange for our furniture and other personal belongings to be delivered to us. This was going to be something that we had not done before so we needed to put our faith in the moving company and the storage company to ensure that our storage items were well cared for. If you are not a patient person and constantly worry about what is happening with your property, then this could be a concern that you would carry with you for the time that things were being stored and shipped.

Well, lady luck sometimes smiles on a person, and for the first part of our trip from Anchorage to Baltimore, she was smiling. This portion of the trip went without any issues or concerns. We left on time and arrived on time. When we got to Baltimore our luck was about to change.

We went to the ticket counter where an Air Force representative behind the counter was busy filling the chartered aircraft by checking in passengers and luggage. The Air Force was supposed to make reservations for the passengers before they arrived in Baltimore. We were told that there were reservations for four of us to go on the flight before leaving Alaska.

When we got to Baltimore and attempted to check in for the flight the Air Force agent told us that there were no reservations. He said, there are no seats left on this chartered aircraft. So, since I had been directed to go to Portugal, he then had to figure out what we should do about getting myself and my family there.

This took some time, we waited for hours in the airport and the Air Force agent finally came back to us and asked me to come to the counter. What he presented for our way forward was a bit more complicated than what we were originally told to prepare for.

The Air Force reserved seats on a civilian aircraft to go to New York City (John F. Kennedy International Airport) and then to catch another flight from New York to Lisbon, Portugal. We would then be spending the night in Lisbon and flying from there to Terceira Island where I would be working.

Well, since we had been told that we could only take basic clothing and toiletry items with us from Alaska to Portugal we packed as many bags as we could before leaving. We had extra baggage authorized so that we were not caught short with the one or two bags that people would normally take with them if they were traveling. So, when all was said and done, I believed we had about 12 bags. We also had to have the pets in separate containers.

So, we had to collect our bags, dog, and cat in Baltimore and then go across the airport to the gate that we would be taking to New York. That was a painful experience, and we were not having any fun. Then when we got to New York we found out the airline had flown us into JFK airport but that we needed to collect our bags, dog, and cat and hoof it to a bus where we had to board and be taken to LaGuardia Airport.

We made it to LaGuardia Airport and went up to the counter to check our bags, dog, and cat and were able to do so without fail. We then waited to board the flight to Lisbon, Portugal. When the time came, we were able to board the flight and get to Lisbon.

We met some nice Portuguese people on the flight and spoke with them for some time. They were from mainland Portugal but had never been to Terceira Island so could not tell us anything about what would be our new home.

When we arrived in Lisbon, the city was all a buzz with Expo 98 Lisbon going on. When we deplaned, we saw guards armed with Uzis everywhere. We thought that perhaps something had happened there that required extra vigilance, but we were unsure what that could have been. None of us spoke or read Portuguese so things were a bit confusing and then with the guards with their guns spaced just every 10 to 15 yards apart, things were very tense.

We looked for an information booth and to our surprise we found one. A Portuguese lady that spoke excellent English was able to help us. She set up hotel rooms and taxis for us. We stayed in a very posh hotel and were treated to a wonderful buffet of Portuguese food, none of which we had ever seen before.

We nibbled on some of the things from the buffet. When we took the taxis to the hotel, because they were so small and because we had so many bags and our cat and dog, there were 3 taxis that took us to the hotel.

We spent the night in the hotel and had to be back at the airport early the next morning. We collected our bags, dog, and cat and made it to Lisbon airport. We checked our bags and then went to the gate to wait to board. When we got to the gate it was very crowded. We were not sure if we were going to be able to make this flight.

When the time came to board the aircraft the entire gate area emptied except for our family. The airline company took all these people out to the plane via a bus. We were left standing in the airport. We asked the gate agent what was happening, and she told us we just needed to wait.

We waited until all the people from the bus that had been at the gate before had boarded the aircraft. Then we noticed that the bus was returning to the gate that we were at. The driver of the bus asked us to follow him, and we went and got on the bus.

The driver took the bus to the aircraft, and we thought surely there would be so few seats that we would be seated apart all over the aircraft. To our surprise when we boarded, we were informed that seats in first class had been reserved for us by the airline.

We then flew from Lisbon to Terceira Island. We spent the next 2 years in Portugal, made some great friends, and enjoyed living there on the island. This was one of our premiere assignments and look back on it with fond memories.

It was wonderful to finally get to the island after all the trouble we had endured in getting there. It is a beautiful paradise and if you ever get the opportunity to go there you owe it to yourself to go and enjoy the beautiful scenery and the wonderful people there.

This is the end of this article. Thanks for reading and if you feel so inclined, please provide any constructive criticism appropriate. We value your time and very much appreciate your reading and commenting.

If you liked this article, please clap for it, mark yourself as a follower of mine, and join me on my journey in writing as I contribute to various publications on medium.com.

The more time people spend reading my articles, the more it encourages me to continue writing. Many thanks for taking the time to read what I have written. Get access to unlimited articles here on Medium!

Where else can you read articles written by artistic and creative authors on so many different topics for $5 a month?

Please join my email list, this allows you to be notified as soon as I post something new. My writing success depends on readers like you who appreciate and support my writing. Thanks so much for taking the time to read and support me.

I would love to give a Big Shout Out to B.R. Shenoy on the article https://readmedium.com/a-tale-of-an-italian-tour-guide-in-greece-bd27d6fc18e2. This article presents the experience of going to Greece and enjoying it there but also appreciating the tour guide. I thought it was awesome that this article celebrated both. I loved the pictures as I have not made it to Greece yet. Not sure its in the cards for me anytime soon but what a beautiful place! Thanks for sharing this outstanding article.

I would love to give a Big Shout Out to Leonard Tillerman for his article https://readmedium.com/the-power-of-inspiration-to-transform-lives-2a9400d3a9ab. Wow! That guy can write, and man did this article speak to me. It is wonderful how the power of a great relationship can have such a profound effect on a person. You could just feel the love between this young man and his grandfather. Thanks for sharing this tremendous story.