Rob, Myself, and our three dogs (yes 3, we know we're crazy) left Pensacola Florida on July 30, 2012. We drove about 6 hours to Atlanta Georgia (pretty drive but nothing too special) and ducked into a La Quinta hotel/motel. After stating that we only own 2 dogs, and sneaking our pups up the back staircase we sat down to watch some of the Olympics which had started the previous week.
[For those of you who don't know, I was a swimmer and a gymnast for a pretty big chunk of my life... I swam on two teams in high school and continue to swim for a good workout today. Therefore, I am just a teensy bit obsessed with the summer games!]
We decided to go to the drive-in movies that night as a last hoorah in America-- plus The Amazing Spider-man and The Dark Knight Rises had released recently and we hadn't seen either. Yay double feature! Not the best idea though, we had to sneak the dogs into the lot there too and we were up til like 0300 watching the movies the night before our flight haha...
So the next day, July 31, 2012 we got up, checked out of the hotel and sneaked the dogs out the back again... We were not allowed to feed the dogs any food since they would be spending 13+ hours in their kennels =( Rob dropped me at the cargo hold for the dogs 5 or 6 hours before our flight. I stayed to fill out the paperwork but ended up spending most of the time on the floor cuddling with my babies and apologizing in advance for what was about to happen to them. Rob went off to take our car to the shipping facility, which even though we had all of the paperwork we needed, was still quite the headache.
Alas it is time to go... I kiss the babies, coaxed them into their kennels, and zip-tied them shut for security (to make sure no one tampers w/ them). This was a terrible moment for me.I looked at Rob and told him to run... I bolted out of the building before they could start crying and barking, knowing that I wouldn't be able to hold it together if I heard them whining. =/ We then made our way to the international terminal and wasted some time before boarding the flight!
The boys playing in their new kennels before we left Fl.
Road trip to Atlanta! Silly pups...
Upon our arrival in Frankfurt, we were picked up by our sponsor Ben Johanson, a fellow Marine and now very good friend =) He was very patient as we waited a good 2+ hours to get the dogs from customs! We then all loaded into the unit van and drove to Wiesbaden. The Army Lodge did not have any pet friendly rooms available (even though I had tried to make reservations over a month in advance... ) and they directed us to the Crown Plaza out in town.
At our first hotel, the Crown Plaza
While most of Germany is dog friendly, most people are not nuts enough to have three dogs... Already off on a bad foot with this hotel, they locked us out of our room the first night we were there because we had to attend a company dinner. The dogs barked too much and the other guests complained... whoops! After about 3 days, we moved hotels! Yay... no more dirty looks when I take the dogs out to go potty!
Cuddles on the bed! Spoiled!! (p.s. Tiberius sleeps on his back like a human!)
Yoshi missed his daddy when he would go to work... Solution? Sleep on his dirty clothes!
We moved to the PentaHotel and had such a wonderful experience with the staff there. We were there for about a month. i got to watch the Olympics (in German lol) and I fell in love with Pinterest since there was nothing else to do during the day when Rob was at work.
I would like you to know that we had orders to Germany in I think March... We did not leave until the end of July, actually I think the plane landed on Aug 1, 2012... but somehow, that was not enough time to coordinate housing for us. So we were stuck in a hotel until then.
Don't get me wrong, the staff was great... but that's about it. The room was nice enough, but it was quite SMALL with three growing dogs who like to play. A lot. While the hotel did offer a complimentary breakfast, I wasn't able to go because I couldn't leave the dogs unattended since they barked too much. So no breakfast for me; worse, no coffee! Lunch was usually cheese-itz (sp?) and an apple; dinner was at the hotel restaurant. We would bring the dogs and sit on the patio. It was lovely. The staff got to know the pups and they would play with them and bring them water... My only complaint about the menu is that there are no vegetables! Pasta and meat and potatoes are great, but after about a week, I just wanted some vegetables! Haha =)
One of the more fun events at the hotel, the dogs broke out of the room once when we were at another company dinner! Oy vey! Yoshi had figured out how to open the doors to the house in Fl, and figured it out again when we were out! The hotel staff received complaints about the dogs barking and when they arrived on our floor, they found them running up and down the hallway with the door to our room wide open! The door to our room wasn't weighted... awesome. So once he got the handle down, it didn't close automatically!
We had a huge stress weighing on us, because USMC only pays for 10 days in a hotel regularly. They made an exception to allow up to 30 days in this case, because in what world would it take longer than 30 days to get into a house?!
Can I just add that Rob has been in the Corps over five years, we have been married for almost four and we have NEVER been FORCED into base housing. This was astounding to us, we have always been allowed the choice... But not here. Then again, it is a Army base. Not that I have anything against the Army, but seriously, these guys are not efficient. Additionally Army housing apparently only allows two pets total in a house.
So they told us we were going to have to get rid of one of our dogs. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! These dogs are our children. We love them like so, and I pretty much treat them like they are human except for some behaviors that are not allowed (not human food, not allowed on the couches, things like that). Telling me to get rid of one of my dogs after I just paid an arm & a leg to get them here; and considering we had all three of them before we received orders... I was LIVID. Luckily one of Rob's Staff Sergeant's said that his unit would back up an "exception to policy" for an allowance to live "on the economy" (out in town). Housing countered with allowing us to have all of our dogs in our apartment. Yes apartment..Ugh, I just wanted to live out in town! Whatever... Give me a house!
Oh no wait, now that we are allowed to have all of our dogs, they still don't have a place for us to live! It has already been a month, which means we are out of Corps funds at the hotel and are now digging into our savings. RIDICULOUS...
Rob's Gunny (Gunnery Sergeant) took pity on us and allowed us to move in to his house in Mainz (across the Rhine River from Wiesbaden) so that the dogs would have more room to play, we wouldn't have to pay for the hotel ourselves. I seriously cannot thank that man enough... We were in his house for about 3 weeks before they had a house on base for us to move in to. But the fun doesn't stop there...
When the time finally came around for us to move into our new apartment (...) Rob was sent back to the states for some class for 10 days. I was already anxious about having to navigate Germany on my own for those 10 days, but then to add having to move into our house by myself...?! Manage the German speaking movers and the dogs, and clean Gunny's 3 bdrm, 2 level house by myself... Common! So on Sept 21, 2012 a full 7 weeks after our arrival... We had house!
Just for perspective, most of the people we know spent no longer than 3 weeks in a hotel before receiving housing. Most less than a week...
Alrighty... back to homework! I apologize for any grammatical errors... I wrote quickly and my emotions run a little high when I think about the crap they put us through...
xoxo!
