One and One Half

And so begins the journey.

              at way too early in the morning..

    I figured I would attempt to stop and document this trip as much as possible for both your benefit and my own. Hopefully this will reassure anyone who made a donation to my World Championship travels that it is not actually being used as a shopping fund.

    And, for my benefit I am going to try to get every detail so I can remember every second of this amazing opportunity.

                   I woke up at 4:45 am.

                  Took a shower at 4:48 am.

                  Got in the car at 5:08.

                  Arrived at Austin airport at 6:00.

                  Said my final goodbye to Ben at 6:02.

    Walking into the airport I realized just how little I had.

                  1 – backpack filled with days worth of clothes I most likely wasn't going to wear

                  1 – duffle bag that would be used as a carry on (mostly snacks, blanket, computer)

                  1 – purse

                  1 – very important paddle

    I realized just how different my life as a kayaker and life as a ski racer really were, mainly that my largest bag on this trip was under 20 lbs and I was able to carry everything on my own. That doesn't happen in the ski world.

     Airports are always fun.

    I have come to realize how the airport system works, you smile at them they usually smile back at you. With this in mind I always attempt to be extra nice to people working for the airline, and it usually works to my benefit (I have been bumped to first class three times with this method). Today was no different. I walked up to the desk with the biggest smile I could muster up at six o'clock in the morning. And well, I didn't get first class but I did get my seats changed from middle to window. Score.

                                            *Note to self: Check paddle first

    The very nice desk lady told me to try to go through security with my paddle. I was optimistic and tried. Longs story short, I got my usual TSA massage twice within 20 minutes. However, the security lady told me that she was Murphy's favorite, and so all of my bad luck was now transferred to her after my second pat down.
                          -I am currently waiting at my gate for my delayed flight to Chicago.

More to come..