The Adventure Begins . . .

. . . with a man wearing a cowboy hat and chaps at the Crystal Lake train station. WTF? As I struggled with the door and two suitcases, however, I was glad that the cowboy was there. He was kind enough to hold the door for me. Inside I was quickly met by the "Can I sell you a used weekend ticket" man who was down on his luck. From his waistline, however, I can't imagine he was too far down on his luck. Still I have a weakness for helping people, so I gave him five bucks for the used ticket (If nothing else, I appreciated that he was being resourceful). I still bought a legit ticket on the train as train tickets are non-transferable.

I get to the airport by 4:15pm (for a 7:30pm flight) thinking that the TSA might give me a private screening. No luck there. This was the fastest I think I've ever gotten through security at O'Hare. So it was 4:30 and I had two and a half hours to kill before the flight began boarding. Luckily the Jets/Chargers game was on. On Friday, I gave out my Super Bowl picks as San Diego over Dallas. I think I need to revise.

You know it's a good travel day when you're lucky enough to have a whole empty row of seats on an international flight. I got some good sleep on the flight (well . . . as good as you can get). As a bonus the dreadlocked retro hippie sitting in front of me didn't smell like he hadn't showered in weeks.

One drawback to the flight. For those gluten-freers out there. My gluten free breakfast came with a gluten-full muffin. It said "Contains Wheat" right on the label. I did log the complaint with the Flight Attendant who apologized profusely and swapped me a banana for the muffin.

Otherwise, I landed safely in Dublin, got checked into the hotel, and I'm looking forward to a shower. I smell like a dreadlocked retro hippie who hasn't showered in weeks. Gotta wash the travel off!