For today’s adventure, we’re going to Tangier, Morocco. Or are we?   I booked an afternoon city tour and made arrangements to meet the guide at a Mosque near the ferry terminal.   I then booked a ferry leaving from Algeciras, about 2 hours from Rota. I ended up being the last person to board because I couldn't find the right ferry terminal.   After dozing for most of the 1.5-hour crossing, I awoke feeling refreshed, and joined the line of passengers on shore, only to be sent back to the ship because my passport wasn’t stamped.  I passed thru security when I left Spain, I thought they stamped it. OK, whatever, I headed back up the ramp to find the passenger door closed.   I walked back down the ramp and was waved into the car bay and told to wait till they unloaded the cars.   Eventually I made it upstairs where I found an empty ferry.  After wandering around, I found a few people milling about; evidently they also needed a st...

My next stop was Rota, Spain. There's a naval base there and it's possible to catch a military flight back to the States, so I thought I would scope it out. One of the benefits of being retired military is that I can fly on a space-available basis for free or near free. I had also heard quite a bit about Rota; that there were a lot of interesting places to go in the area like Tangiers and Ronda.           As I always do when I’m on a military base, I was excited to go shop for American food. After walking almost 1.5 hours, I was super disappointed to find no Taco Bell, which is at almost every base I’ve ever been on. I know, don't judge, it's my favorite fast food and almost no where do I see it in Europe. Oddly enough, Liverpool has one, but that's so random. All they had to offer was Subway. By that time, I was so tired and hungry I happily scarfed it down. After I did a bit of shopping I splurged on a cab ride back home. I had hoped ...