Thank You State Department

I am finally back in beautiful sunny and dusty Taji after completing the last leg of the TDY trip to the US. It is bittersweet, I was really enjoying my down time in Jordan (more later) but it is nice to finally sleep in my bed again.

Sunday morning the alarm went off at 0’dark hundred and by 0700 hrs we were on the road to the Birmingham International Airport. I was not looking forward to travel back to the middle east. We got to the airport and said goodbye to the Security Team and the Depot folks who accompanied us since our arrival in Dallas the previous Sunday. WE made our way to the check in counter and we got there so early that we were the first ones in line. I waited for the Iraqi’s to check in and that’s when the fun started. I should mention that WalMart stock took a sharp rise in prices last week thanks to the Iraqi’s who loved the place and did there fair share of stimulating the economy. I think the Demos stimulation plan is all wrong, we should have chartered several hundred airliners and brought Iraqi’s over to the US on a 48-72 hour shopping spree. The amount of money that they would have spent would have jumpstarted the economy in a heartbeat. Besides hitting the Walmarts, they also enjoyed the smaller mall in Anniston and the Best Buy store.

As you can imagine when you buy a lot of stuff you need more suitcases or bags because if not either your suitcase will run out of space or will weigh a ton, Sure enough most were over the weight limit on the one bag so here are 4 out of the 7 officers opening their suitcases and shifting around their clothes, purchases, etc. They would then get the suitcase reweighed only to be told your only 7 pounds over and once again the shuffle started over again. After 30 minutes of this they finally got checked in and several were now carrying plastic Walmart bags as carry ons. I would have taken pictures of this but my digital camera went on the fritz at Talladega Superspeedway, the gears on the lens are not working correctly so the lens is not shutting all the way.

We got to Charlotte and literally walked what seemed like a mile going from the commuter plane terminal to the other end of the airport. We had a few minutes to grab a sandwich knowing all too well peanuts for lunch wasn’t going to cut it for us. Onto to New York (JFK) and after the train ride to the international terminal we found out that the check in counter wasn’t going to open for another 3 hours. Yes the State Department was responsible for the airline connections and we now had a 7 ½ hour layover at JFK. So we grabbed a couple of tables put them together and went to the Iraqi’s favorite fast food restaurant that would have made Colonel Sanders proud KFC. After we got them settled in and fed a couple of us did what any normal GI would do when faced with a long layover and the NCAA on TV. We hit the Sam Adams bar and got a few cold ones, some killer nachos and wings and enjoyed some basketball. We checked in did some last minute shopping and then got to our gate, hit the bar for one last cold one and it was on our way to Amman Jordan.

Eleven hours later we arrived in Amman at 1700 hrs, and having left at 2300 hrs EST, most of us got some decent sleep on the flight. It took forever to get the Iraqi’s though Jordanian immigration and then the missing luggage monster popped it’s ugly head. After almost one hour they finally located the last of the missing luggage and we got the Iraqi’s on their bus to the hotel no thanks to the State Department who failed to show up. The last thing we needed was an international incident, but thanks to the US Army we took care of business that the State Department dropped the ball on. One of the guys called our hotel and were kindly told that our reservations were cancelled because there was the SOFEX convention and they needed the rooms. We called our POC at the US Embassy in Jordan and no one picks up, no surprise here since they never showed at the airport they sure as hell weren’t in their office. We started calling the major hotels but only got the no vacancy response. At that point with a couple of us being Marriott members we called the Amman Marriott were told sorry but there are rooms available at the Marriott in the Jordan Valley (Dead Sea). Let’s see 45-60 minutes away from the center of Amman wasn’t what we wanted but then again, swimming pools, sun, the dead sea, plenty of pool action, great food and drinks you get the picture, they didn’t have to twist our arms any more.

The Marriott was awesome, from my window and balcony I had a view of the dead sea, the swimming pools, unfortunately the only thing that was missing was my better half! Major Sanders and I grabbed some dinner at the sports bar in the hotel and watched some Champions League Soccer. We called it a night around 2300 hrs since we were going to Petra the next day. It was nice to sleep with the balcony doors open listening to the water of the fountains by the pool and smelling the fresh air of the Dead Sea.

The next day we played tourist and headed down to Petra, which was about 3 ½ to 4 hours from the hotel according to everyone we asked. Doug drove, I was navigator and shotgun and George slept in the back seat most of the way. We went through about 4-5 towns and small cities and saw it all, goats hanging outside the butcher shops, street venders all over the place, people walking down the middle of streets as if they were on a Sunday stroll oblivious to the fact that they were impeding vehicular traffic, old men sitting drinking coffee staring at us and probably saying to the others, “what in the hell are those 3 Americans doing in this one horse town’? The scenery was awesome on the drive and it really gave us a better view and take on Jordan, the people, the land and what it has to offer. It also reminded us that on the way back we were going to take the 4 lane highway and save ourselves some driving time. Needless to say the directions and signs here in Jordan leave a lot to be desired and they never had the business district only posted so we ended up taking the main road through the entire village or town since we had no clue of the bypass road. We finally get to Petra and no where is there a sign which tells you where the ruins are. We stopped and George asked this guys sitting outside a camper how to get there, the guy he finds out is Italian and speaks no English so once again my Spanish comes in handy and the with a mix the Italian I know and Spanish we start talking and he gives me directions on how to get there.

Petra is awesome and you can spend an entire week to visit the entire site, obviously we took the short two hour guided tour and got a chance to see several of the key buildings plus learn about how Petra was settled, why they built the various tombs, buildings, the meaning of certain symbols, etc. The rock formations coupled with the construction that took place from 0100-0700 AD was mind boggling.

Petra Architecture

More Petra Buildings

There were tourists from everywhere and from what the guide said last year over 1M persons visited Petra and this year they are expecting it to increase to 1.2M I left convinced that this is definitely a place that I want to come back and see with Carmen. We headed back to the hotel and got back in time to see the sun set on the Dead Sea and it was beautiful.

Sunset at the Dead Sea

After dinner as we headed back to our rooms we heard some Arab music coming from one of the many lounges at the hotel and when we stuck our heads in we could see a belly dancer doing here thing and busting a move! So we grabbed a seat had a drink and watched the last 25 minutes of the show. I was laughing because since I have been here in Iraq I always ask my Iraqi counterparts when they planned on taking me to a belly dance joint and here I was in Jordan watching one! She danced pretty good I guess but I prefer watching Shakira doing her moves on some of her videos any day of the week!

I was beat that night having only slept 3+ hours the night before since I was wide awake at 0430 hours and went to the gym that morning. This time I slept almost 11 hours. Got up did breakfast at their buffet and hit the Dead Sea and swimming pool and just chilled under the sun and got caught up on some of my reading. I then headed to Amman and linked up with George, Saad and his better half Tala. We went out for some drinks had dinner and then I took a taxi back to the hotel since we were heading back to Iraq the next day. But that’s a different story!