Hop, Skip, & a Jump to Guam!

Needless to say we didn’t sleep much the night before our trip to Guam. I mean who would be able to?? Knowing that Piper was in good hands in Hawaii, we couldn’t wait to meet up with her! It was about a 30 minute drive to Clarksburg airport from Paul’s parents’ house. We were en route when we hit traffic due to a jackknifed 18-wheeler blocking the road. “Really? “ Two minutes after getting around it we hit a caravan with an excavator taking up both lanes. “Oh COME ON!” We eventually make it to the airport to only wait an hour or so until the one and only check-in counter (veryyy small airport) opened up. Due to travelling on military orders we were allotted 2 check bags up to 70# each to fly. In addition to these two bags we each had a carry-on bag and a back pack. This is everything we will have with us for the next few months as all our other belongings won’t be packed up and shipped by the military until July 7th. Needless to say our carry-ons weighed a TON. If only it was full of clothes or other personal items. That would only make sense, right? However, our bags were full of BINDERS.

Binders filled with copies and originals of every document about our lives: birth certificate, social security, and all the paperwork from the military. This equated to 1 binder for me, paul, Piper, Pauls military medical file, and the precious originals. Yes. FIVE BINDERS. It’s an odd feeling to see your life in paper form and have to carry it on your person for the next 3 days to the other side of the world.

After saying our goodbyes to Paul’s parents in West Virginia we boarded our flight to Dulles airport. In Dulles our layover was just long enough (1.5hr) to grab a sandwich and then go through a special registration line for passengers to Hawaii. A quick review. Hawaii is requiring a specific COVID test result and creating an online account with other health information listed to be able to board your flight. The line we went through was to verify this information and provide wristbands that would then allow you to get off the plane and to baggage claim. The 10 hour flight to Hawaii went as smooth as possible for that long of a flight! Unfortunately, no meal was provided so you know we were HUNGRY when we landed.

We had a 24-hour layover in Honolulu meaning we had to pick up our check bags at baggage claim. Needless to say, juggling hunger, 4 large check bags, 4 carry-ons, and jet leg is no easy task! After one taxi kicking us out when I ran the luggage cart back to the correct location, we finally made it to our hotel. We quickly freshened up and then stretched our legs by going sight-seeing in Waikiki before our dinner with an ocean view. It was definitely a wonderful moment to get relax and not be on an airplane or airport. We sat on the beach while waiting for our reservation. It was surreal to finally imagine our lives as islanders, getting to watch the ocean daily. Getting to see the sun daily after living in cloudy Ohio for the past 4 years, what a luxury! We’d been dreaming about this moment for the past 4-5 months. There was no luau, pig cooked in the ground, or lei’s handed out due to COVID. However, there were stages with hula performers, plenty of people on the beach, and Hawaiian shirts everywhere. We felt like we could breathe again. The next day we would finally be in Guam!

Thankfully we had better luck with our taxi the next morning and made it to the airport early. So early in fact that we had to wait about 45 minutes before they would let us check our bags. Apparently, you can only check your bags 2.5 hours or so prior to boarding your flight. So we sat in the outdoor/indoor check-in area waiting to check our bags and for Piper to be dropped off. As we were checking in our bags I get a phone call from the pet company. “ We are about to drop off Piper at the airport, but we realized she doesn’t have a health certificate on her crate. Do you have it?” Brief reminder, health certificates can only be given by a veterinarian within 10 days of travel. This health certificate was also Pipers’ second one in the past week due to Hawaii standards and regulations. The vet only gives you ONE original copy and the original is required to be on her kennel at all times or they will not fly her or accept her into each new state/country. If there is no health certificate then they will quarantine your animal for 120 days. I start to get tunnel vision. I replied, “No I do not have it. It was taped to her crate…did y’all take it out by chance? Where could it be? I don’t have any other originals…” The company representative could hear the panic and fear in my voice. She replied,” Okay…. You talk to the airline and see if they will take the copy of the health certificate and I will call the Hawaii Animal Quarantine facility to see if they have it.” Okay, let’s figure this out. I begin working with the United representative who is very kind and VERY impressed with my “Piper binder” that has all of her required documentation tabbed for each step of her trip. It’s 30 minutes later and we still don’t have Piper or more information about her health certificate. So I call the company again. They stated that they will drop Piper and another persons dog off at the airport and then are going personally to the Animal Quarantine department and will get the health certificate back and hand deliver it to me. WOW! I didn’t realized I was holding my breath, but I finally felt like I could breathe again.

When Piper got delivered it was quite the reunion! We were allowed to take her out of the crate, walk her, and enjoy her until her final check with TSA. About 5 minutes later the health certificate was delivered to us and we were all going to be okay! The Hawaii Dept should of NEVER taken the certificate as it clearly stated on all of her paperwork, including the health certificate, that Guam was her final destination and not Hawaii. As they always do, everyone in the airport was loving on and complimenting Piper, including TSA.

She really is the best girl, and we don’t deserve her unconditional love! We gave her hugs and promises this was her last flight for a long time and sent her off. Paul and I made our way to our terminal and boarded our final flight. One last long flight, 7.5 hours long. We were leaving the afternoon of the 28th and landing in Guam the evening of the 29th. Thank you 20hr time change! Sooo “Back to the Future”! Right before take-off a flight attendant gave us a ticket that said Piper had been boarded on the flight and was being a good girl!

We landed after another long flight of no in-flight meal, but the excitement of finally being on Guam overrode our hunger! We waited to see the United Pet Safe air-conditioned van pick Piper up, which put us at the end of the line for customs. Yes, Guam is a US territory but we still had to go through customs. This customs line was definitely different than most you experience. It was a long line in the baggage claim area that ended with you going to 1 of 6 employees that are sitting at fold-out card table with accordion files and a bunch of different loose papers all over them. We waited over an hour in line to then present our IDs, passports, COVID vaccination cards and secondary proof of vaccination that is from the facility/clinic where you got your vaccination. We made it through alllll of this to see that there were no bags left on the bag carousel. They had pulled all of the remaining bags off the carousel and placed them on the ground scattered around the carousel. Interesting. Again, we were one of the last ones in the customs line so there weren’t many bags left. We start doing circles around the carousel looking for all of our bags. We had checked our 2 carry-ons at the gate, so we needed to find 6 bags….we only come up with 5. We can’t find one of Paul’s sea bags! There’s one sea bag left, but it has someone’s last name written in big sharpie along the side of it. It’s clearly not ours. When in the military, you see a lot of sea bags. Rule number one is to double check it is your bag right?? Well apparently someone’s jet lag took over and they grabbed our sea bag without double checking. SERIOUSLY?! How…. We don’t have the energy for ONE MORE PROBLEM. We then have to make a claim for a lost bag through a language barrier with the employees there. We had to really explain that our phone numbers do NOT work here as we just landed and will need to be contacted via email or our hotel. As we are trying to drive this point home, a man in military camos comes up to us and tells us that our ride is looking for us and we need to make moves. Paul’s sponsors’ husband was kind enough to pick us up from the airport and take us to the hotel. Of course, we were trying to hurry and felt even worse that we made this kind stranger wait on us for so long. We leave and meet up with him while sending up prayers that someone will return our bag. I’m not going to lie… I scoped out everyone that was waiting for rides to see if they had our seabag. I might have even asked a few people to double check their bags. Hey, can you blame a girl?🤷🏻‍♀️We make it to our hotel, which is our temporary housing until we are given a house on base. This could be a few days or a month according to the estimated wait list. Update on Piper, she was picked up by the military pet company and taken to their facility on the Air Force base (only one available). She must stay there until the vet has cleared her as healthy. However, the vet only does the appointments on Mondays and Fridays…we landed on Tuesday night. SO she has to stay for a few more days. This is our first taste of true “island time” and/or “military time”. Luckily, we know the Dept of Agriculture has accepted her for entry and qualified for “home quarantine”. As explained in an earlier post, she had to have a certain level of rabies titer and other paperwork cleared prior to be placed in the home quarantine. Guam requires 120 days of “quarantine” from the date from the titer test. We landed in Guam at 90 days post titer test, so Piper owes 30 days of quarantine at home. At this point I’m sure she will be ecstatic to do nothing but rest and cuddle with us at home for the next 30 days!

We get checked in to our hotel that is right on the beach and our room is right off the pool. What a treat! At this point it could have been in the middle of the jungle and we wouldn’t of cared as we were so exhausted. WE. MADE. IT. We’re HOME.