May - June
The time has come, pretty quick as a matter of fact. We finally got our orders at the end of May and in two weeks we needed to pack up and get our asses to El Paso. I don't know how military families do it! Honestly I don't. But it can be done if you put your head down and get shit done. Michelle is a champion when it comes to moving. I'm not sure if she gets help or advice, but she is good at it. She did everything! I just executed parts of her plan. We did more communicating this time and were on the same page on a lot of fronts.
The biggest problem was that no American airline would take our pets, only Lufthansa. The bad part was that Lufthansa does not fly to El Paso, so we had to get to Houston and drive over to El Paso.
The entire trip was 5,613 miles. It went something like this. We stayed at the Barbarrosahof near our house from June 9-15. We had so much shit that we had to sort it all out before we left. The stay at the Barbarrosahof was elegant. We had a mini buffet breakfast and I thought that was excellent. I would eat in the morning then do a short run just to get a routine going.
At 3:30 am on June 15, we got ready and the airport shuttle had to meet us in front of our room because we had 14 luggage to pack into the shuttle. The lady was an efficient driver. I don't think we ever got to the Frankfurt Airport any faster. We tipped her 20 euro for the great service, she was so appreciative (they don't really tip in Germany).
The flight was long, but I must of had 4 glasses of wine which made the time go by faster. We landed in Houston, George Bush Airport and walked into a disaster. The people working there were so rude. The place is so unorganized and there was so much construction going on. Let's just say it was the worst experience at an airport in the history of airports. Even JFK wasn't as a bad as Houston.
Michelle and I split the drive into 2 days with the first leg from Houston to Fort Stockton and the second day Fort Stockton to El Paso. We were so excited to eat American food. Our first meal was at Sonic. It was unsatisfactory, but somehow we had to be reminded that we were in America again.
The hardest part about driving was that we had so much stuff. I think we had a total of 15 suitcases/bags plus the dog and cat. It was hard to keep track of. The drive from Houston to Fort Stockton was 8 hours. During the drive we were joking that we had to drive so slow because we were used to driving on the autobahn in Germany.
At the end of day 1 we got to Fort Stockton, a town literally in the middle of nowhere. It reminded me of desolated America. The last leg of our trip was about a 4 hour drive from Fort Stockton to El Paso. By now the cat had enough and was going crazy. She wanted out. Kiwi loves to travel but gets nervous. So he was on edge and had anxiety.
Finally, after 3 days, we got to El Paso. Michelle already had the house rented and set up so it was available when we arrived. Our rental is $1675 per month. The best part of the house is a the shower because it has a bench.
Our PCS move was stressful, but not as bad as the first one. We started on June 15th and it took 2 days to get to El Paso. It was exhausted to say the least. The bad thing was that when we got to El Paso, things only got started.