Travel day to Iowa, Part 1

Things got off to a rough start. We were scheduled for a 6am flight out of Newark, NJ, which meant a 3am wake up to make it into the airport in time. Rick thought I set an alarm and I thought he set one. We were both wrong. But luckily, our 2 year old daughter, Olivia, gave us a warm and wet wake up call when she peed in the bed at 3:00am. I have never been happier to have one of my kids pee in the bed. Usually, I get pissed off. After the clean up, Rick and I quickly gathered our stuff and decided instead of meeting our friend at his house in NJ, we'd just do long-term parking. At 3:30am, there is absolutely no traffic on the roads. We were making good time, but nothing ever goes smooth in NYC. We pass a sign saying the the Holland Tunnel is closed until 8am for a road improvement project! Oh no, it's a minimum 30 minute detour to the Lincoln Tunnel. Luckily, we made it to the airport in time and our friend who travels extensively took us through security quickly. The trip to Chicago to Omaha was uneventful. We flew business class, which was nice, but for 2 hours there and 1 hour there, it was just too short.

Time to check in at the hotel. If I have more time today, I'll write about the nice people we met along the way. It's so not New York here, where people don't make eye contact. Heck, you can't even get most people to smile. Here, people almost seem way too eager to talk to you. Or maybe that's just the jaded New Yorker in me talking.