THE SWEET LIFE AT THE HIPPIE HOTEL: Charleston and Beyond?

After a good night's rest, we called a family meeting to order and decided to hop on the return flight to Jackson that had a "show time" of 1250. We decided that we'd return home this afternoon, leave our bags packed and try for a straight manifest through to Germany from Jackson on Monday. We thought we might have a better chance of doing that rather than waiting on the flight to Spangdalhem tonight.

Since it was 0930 (I'm getting good at this military time and have resorted to using my head instead of my fingers to count it) we called Horace, the friendly van driver who took us to the hotel last night, and asked him if he was available to give us a Charleston tour. He was a lot of fun - full of history and either little known facts or stuff he made up along the way.

Five-story Seafair yacht docked at the harbor

One of the many churches in town.

Lots of old homes

Ellie has decided to put this on her short list of college choices. Would be fine by me. I'd love to have a reason to visit.

Emma has put this on her short list of colleges - The Citadel

Parade Grounds at the Citadel

After calling the Charleston passenger terminal at 1100 to make sure that show time was still at 1250, we began to make our way back to base. Horace called us a to-go order in at a sandwich shop just outside the main gate, and we stopped by to pick it up as there is no food other than vending machines in the terminal.

Upon arriving inside, we noticed it was completely silent. Nobody was around - we figured there would not be many people wanting to go to Jackson, MS as a destination. About that time, a guy walked up and said, "I figured as you were walking in that you must be the ones calling about Jackson. That flight left early, about 11:30."

So I guess our family meeting was for naught. We've been here since 1215 at the terminal waiting for a 1930 "show time" for the flight that leaves at 2120.

Fortunately, they have a Visiting Dignitary lounge here and Woody qualifies. He laughed and said that's about all he qualifies for these days. At any rate, we've got three rooms to ourself and a wonderful glassed in "porch" right on the flightline. We've been able to watch all the planes come in and leave - including two F-16 fighters taking off simultaneously.