Traveling (again)

Well...let's try this again (how many times am I gonna start an entry like this?)

I got everything packed and ready to go and was even able to fit in a few hours of sleep before waking up and getting ready to go. Chris, Nick and Alex got to the house at 9:15 (right on time!) and after a bit of a tearful goodbye started on my grand adventure!

After a brief stop at UPS to pick up my package (yeah!) we got to the airport a bit before 10:00AM. It didn't take very long to check my bags, print my ticket and go through security and by about 10:10 I was sitting at my gate waiting for my flight. Since I had some time to kill...I decided to start my trip off right by having breakfast at a mexican themed eatery near my gate...I even had a cranberry margarita! The plane was a little bit late getting in...but we were able to load up rather quickly and left the gate only 10 to 15 minutes later than scheduled.

The flight was pretty easy going...although not the optimum day to fly...clouds, rain, ice and snow. I sat next to a younger woman (early 20's) who through her tousseled hair, slight build and quirky humor reminded me of my nephew Alex. I can't remember her name right now...
She was going home to Minneapolis (actually about 2 hours North of Minneapolis) after coming in to spend the holiday with her boyfriend at his parents house in Akron. He had left on Saturday to go back to Iraq...he had reinlisted to be with his battle buddies. She had flown in on Christmas Day...although she was 3 minutes late for the check-in time and missed her initial flight, she was set to fly in on the later flight and then got a seat on another flight on Standby...however, her luggage came in on the later flight. So even though she got in to Cleveland around 7PM...her luggage didn't arrive until about 11PM...Merry Christmas, huh?
She had mentioned that she wanted to have kids...BUT, she really wanted to screw them up and teach them to talk backwards...I guess that sometimes you really should have to take a test or get a license to breed!

At Minneapolis I had to switch planes (I heard that they needed the plane that we were on to go to Montreal due to mechanical problems with the other plane) and by the time I got to the other gate (at the other end of the concourse...of course) they were just starting to load the plane. It was an uneventful and rather short flight to Omaha...I tried to catch a bit of a nap along the way.

After we landed and deplaned...it took me a little while to find the proper luggage carousel since things weren't labeled too well...but I found it right before the bags started coming out and mine were out pretty quick. I made a call to the Hotel for the shuttle and was told that it was currently out at the airport and would wait for me...so I went outside and after a short walk found the shuttle and made my way to the Hotel.

After getting to the Hilton it took a little while to get set up with a room...the lists of people had been updated a time or two since they were sent before Christmas Break and some people had left the tour since...a duplicate confirmation number added to the confusion, but after a little while I was given keys to the room. I schlepped my luggage to the elevator and up to room 6010 - I put my card in the keyslot and opened the door to find someone in the room already (I was told that my roommate had not yet checked in). I found that it was someone from the tour who had already checked in with his roommate so I left my luggage in that room and went to the front desk to sort things out. After a few minutes more spent at the registration desk I was finally given keys to my room. I went and picked up my luggage from where I had left it and went to my room...put the card in the keyslot and opened the door....and...the room was empty (whew!). The second keycard that they gave me didn't work...but I didn't care. I settled into my room and relaxed.

I'm stopping this one now so that I can save it before something *else* happens (this is where I left off last time).