RAF Mildenhall

We drove away from Tinker AFB at 9 in the morning. Tinker had been our home for the last 4 years and to see it fade in the distance was a little hard but we knew there were new memories to be made and a new adventure awaited.

We boarded a very small jet plane with 3 seats in a row for our short flight from OKC to Chicago to catch our connection flight. The ride was a little rough especially flying into Chicago. Yet it didn't seem to bother Samantha (aka stink bug) due to the fact that she was asleep the whole flight.

We landed in Chicago and decided to sit down at a restaurant in the airport since our next flight wasn't for another 3 hours. So we found a Macaroni Grill and ate there. Samantha thought it was more fun to throw spaghetti around then to eat it. Of course everyone else but me thought it was funny, but they wern't the ones that had to clean her afterwards.

After the eating and waiting we boarded the B777 which was quite nice. There are 3 seats by the windows and 5 seats in the center. We had four to ourselves in the center. Every seat had its own TV and choice of movies to watch. I myself chose Due Date and RED where Samantha tried to watch Megamind but just chewed on the headset until she fell asleep. The flight was roughly 8 1/2 hours long and soon we landed in London.

A friend of mine that had gotten stationed out here 2 years ago was waiting for us and he helped us load our luggage up in the SUV and off we went into the pouring rain. The drive was a little unsettling because I'm not use to driving on the left side of the road in a US left hand drive car. But once we got out of London it wasn't so bad. The countryside was amazing. Very green and clean with lots of trees and farm land. After about 45 minutes of driving we took the exit that led us the small town of Mildenhall in Suffolk. There our home would be.

We drove onto the Base Known as RAF (Royal Air Force) Mildenhall which was styled in a historic way. All the buildings are red brick with the clay roof tops. And the roads are red brick with small grass growing threw the brick. There round abouts on every intersection that get confusing when driving on the left hand side. We arrived at our Hotel room that was more of an apartment with 2 bedrooms and living and dinning room with 2 shower rooms, and of course a TV for me to play XBOX on. I took a scenic drive around base and over to RAF Lackenheath to hit up the BX and commissary which is much bigger then the one at Tinker AFB. All and all my first day here in England has been a good one. I look Forward to spending the next few years here and am open to the new adventures that lie ahead.