Planes, Trains and Bicycles.

With other, more illustrious members of the endurance community up in Alaska - ready to start their races - reading their last blog posts before they left... their anxiety, grasping madly for reasons to be calm - I can't help but wonder what mindset I'll be in, what my last blog post will look like, in a little under two months, before I head to Iowa.


I have Iowa on my mind all the time now... I wonder if it's unhealthy. Spending the first 20 years of my life there - I can tell you, I never dreamed I would think about it so much after I'd managed to leave (leaving Iowa being a major desire of mine for the last eight years of that residency)... and now I can't stop thinking about going back. Something is clearly wrong.


So I got on Kayak.com today and typed in Phoenix Sky Harbor to Des Moines International. Usually flying into Des Moines is super expensive and a general hassle. There is only one airline that does direct flights from Phoenix to Des Moines and they are neither my preferred carrier, nor the cheapest (a non-stop flight being over twice as much as one with a stop-over).

Which leads me to looking up which airport has the worst history of flight delays - Minneapolis, Chicago (yeah, I know), or Denver... I mean it's not a huge deal - I have the time to arrive several days ahead (cause I'll be shipping PomPom and will want that time to make sure everything is alright, anyway). So I don't really need to be worried about missing a connection and missing the race... except sometimes when there are really, really, horrible flight delays it leaves people stranded for days...

it seems Chicago is really the worst airport in the US after the trifecta surrounding NYC, so it's out. Denver could still get lots of snow in April, and even though Minneapolis could too - if I get stuck in Denver I'm 12 hours away from Des Moines (and my family), if I get stuck in Minneapolis it's four at the most... okady - so I really can apply basic logic to senseless fears - who knew???


Now I just need to talk to D and find out if he wants to drive me down to the airport himself - or have me take the shuttle.


I think... can it be true... one more item on my list has a sweet, fat check-mark next to it!!!