From Spain with all of it's beauty comes Belinda. David, our niece's son, is very lucky to have such a beautiful girl friend.

We started our tour of Spain from Naval Air Station, Norfolk, Virginia.  Norfolk's new passenger terminal building is impressive and extremely friendly to travelers.  It has showers, internet access, lunch room, and ATM machine.  The information on flights, 757-444-4118, could be improved by updated at three times a day; on occasion, flight information updates would be over two days old.  But, all in all, it is a first rate air terminal.  It has plenty of carts for handling your baggage and transportation to various location on the base.  Normal hours of operation is from 6:00 am to 12 mid-night.  If they have special flights out during the hours of 12 mid-night to 6 am they will open the terminal.  Click here to access Norfolk Air Terminal on the internet.  Air Force Lodging Information: Army Lodging Information (Army Shortcut):  Navy Lodging Information:  Space A travelers!!!
We left Norfolk in the evening to Dover AFB, Delaware, knowing we were going to, 'RON', spend the night at Dover AFB.  We were flying 'Space A' on a C-5 with plenty of room.  The flight to Dover AFB took less than one hour.  It was a nice flight and the air-crew was friendly.  Prior to departing Norfolk, we called Dover AFB and made reservation with billeting for a room for the night.

Norfolk Air Terminal being extremely friend to orders and Space A travelers, Dover AFB is quite another story.  If you are flying Space A you will receive almost no help at Dover AFB.  The Air Terminal has no facilities for eating or anything else.  They have an information desk that is maintained by mostly volunteers.  No transportation is provided for Space A passengers.  However, information on transportation was provided and we were able to call a cab.  The Billeting is more than 3 miles from the terminal and you must leave the base and enter it again on the other side of the highway.   This can cost from $6.00 to $16.00, depending on who you get and the time of day.  You can not leave your bags in the Air Terminal and they have no baggage carts.  Be prepared to spend from 30 minutes to hour to make the trip between the Air Terminal and Billeting.  If you or your wife/husband is traveling thru Dover AFB with small children  you will need four to six arms, Dover AFB is extremely unfriendly to Space A travelers.
In fairness to Dover AFB, September 11 changed the way all bases have to operate.  It appears the Air Force has not recovered and I am not sure any other military service has recovered.  At a recent visit to MacDill AFB, I would of had to walk to the gate.  Not only was no transportation provided, one could not hire a cab because no cabs were allowed on the base.  I believe, the Air Force and all Services should review these needs for transportation at all of their bases.  The need for transportation for an active duty person on orders, a military family not on orders or a retiree and their families pasting thru any Military Base is real and these needs should be addressed uniformly.  Let me also add, the accommodations at both AFB's were excellent and reasonability price. 
Now, back to our tour. We got up in the morning from an excellent night's rest in a very nice room.  We call a cab from the list provided by the Billeting's staff, telling the cab where we would be going. The driver had made two trips the day before, so there should not be any problems.  Of course, this was wrong, the base had change the gate security personnel and now the same driver and cab could not take us to the Terminal.  The TSgt in charge, could not offer any suggestion on how to get the three miles to the Air Terminal nor what cab company could enter the base.  After some extremely tensed minuets, we were able to contact a cab that was already at the Air Terminal and this cab came to Billeting for us.  An active duty lady on leave with her 5 month old child and us were able to get to the Air Terminal.
Everyone on the C-5 to Rota purchased flight meals.  These meals were outstanding and would revile any one provide by a commercial carrier.   Eight hours later, we arrived in Rota, Spain.  We had already reserved a rental car, but this was 4:00 am and no one was open for the rental car.  So, we just took a cab to El Puerto De Santa Maria, Cadiz, Spain.

Wow! Saturday morning and churros!  It does not get any better, having a fresh glass of coffee with churros.  This afternoon we will go to the feria after stopping and saying hello to numerous members of Carmen's family who still live in El Puerto.

Bar Vincente has not change that much and our friend with the churros is still at the same place as our last visit.

MariCarmen visits us at her mother house and then we go over to see her two sisters, Pepi and Conchi with her brother-in-law, Pedro at Conchi and Pedro's home in El Puerto featured below.

Saturday night we took the bus to the feria with her two sisters, Pepi and Conchi.  We spend a couple of hours caseta hopping, ie - going from tent to tent which was bar to bar, at the feria.  We got to meet several friends we had not seen in over 20 years.  If you go to the feria get a couple of pitchers of 'revujito', white wine with 7up.  After four or five pitchers you are really having a good time.

The feria was a little larger than the year before, but everything was about the same.  The churro caseta was half again as big as last year, but it had few people within.  It is worth saying again, 40 or 50 thousand people drink wine and beer and I seen no one that was not having fun and enjoy each other.

There was food, wine, beer and candy everywhere.  Just drink-up and enjoy the night.  But, you might not want one of there Burguers!

After Saturday night a the feria, we went out and had breakfast - ie churros and coffee.  Sunday, we went with Mari Carmen and Luis for lunch at Cepo.

We all enjoyed a very good meal at Cepo.  Cepo's is located on the old road to Jerez.  There we had good food and excellent service.

After lunch we head back to the fair.  Mari Carmen, Mari Carmen (chica), Luis, Carmen and I.  There we meet several other members of the family and start bar hopping again.  We took some of the younger children over to the rides, but most of the time we were drinking and eating - an on occasions, some dancing.