Riding the C-130 from Rota, Spain to Naples, Italy

The baby's first C-130 ride

In the jump seats



Ciao Chevy Matiz!

We were more than thrilled to hand over the keys to this bad boy. It had treated us well for many hours of traveling from all over southern Spain to Lisbon, Portugal and it was easy on the gas, but it seriously had no "get up and go" in her and was quite cramped!!! We looked pretty funny in it, I'm sure! After ridding ourselves of the Chevy, Matiz, we finally boarded our plane for Naples. We were so ready to venture out into another country by this point and we were excited about all the delicious treats that lie ahead in Italy.

So the C-130 is apparently the plane that people taking free military flights (Space Available flights) laugh about if you get stuck riding in one of these. They are loud, loud, loud, and cold, cold, cold and you have to sit in jump seats. Josh told me this was the closest experience to flying in the P-3 Orion which is what he used to fly. It was kind of cool though because we rode in this plane so 50 or so Marines waiting for a flight with us got to fly in the C-9 which is apparently a much better ride like an airliner, so we had no complaints giving up our comfort for 5 hours for them. There were a few unlucky ones though that got stuck on the plane with us and all their gear, I'm sure you can see them in the background. We had been told earlier by our hotel concierge that there were a bunch of troops staying in the Bachelor's headquarters with us who were on their way to Afghanistan, so when I asked one of the fellow fliers if they were on their way to war, Josh got a good chuckle out of it. These particular ones were only headed to Naples, Italy!