I woke up at 2:20 this morning to go to the airport. I like getting up early but this is a little much.

Made it through TSA with no problems. I’m glad I watched all those YouTube videos on how to pack to make it easier to make it through with no problems. The only hiccup so far is I forgot to eat breakfast. I had it all planned out to I didn’t have to eat anything until I got to Chicago. I had to stop at a gas station on the was to Cedar Rapids and get a crappy prepackaged cinnamon roll. Scratch that, second hiccup, the woman at the ticket counter forgot to give me my license back and had to chase me down. Thank god she caught it in time.

Made it to Chicago. The actual time in the air is surprisingly short. When I saw that it was an hour and a half flight it thought what’s the benefit of flying. It seemed like the time in the air was about a half hour.

I’m on my way to Cancun. I’ve never had the opportunity to do anything like this before. I don’t know what to expect. The woman that was supposed to sit beside me at least was considerate enough to try and sit in the aisle seat so that there was a seat between us. No such luck. I heard one of the flight attendants say that the plane was full. At least the woman next to me tried to be respectful of personal space although I think sardines have more room in their can than we had on that flight.

It was very foggy in Chicago, I got to take this picture though.

Landed in Cancun. There again, flight time was much less than I thought. When I saw the on the tickets, my mind instantly went to that’s how long I would be in the air. Nope, that’s how long from the time you leave the gate to the time you get to the gate. I barely had time to watch The Eternals on the flight. It got over in just enough time to put my tray table up. Time to get off the plane and enter into Mexico.

Holy crap! Now I know what scared cattle feel like. I got off the plane, no real instructions on what to do. I just followed the crowd of people to a much larger crowd of people that had no idea what is going on. I should have take a picture of the chaos that was Mexican immigration. There were four “lines”. Where each line started was a huge mass of people trying to all squeeze into the entrance. It was like one of those scenes in a disaster movie where everyone is trying to get away from the impending doom. Once I got into the zig-zag roped off area things actually went fairly quickly. It took about an hour to get through immigration. I don’t know that I completely understood all of the questions but I got my first Passport stamp! Why they didn’t stamp it on the first available page is kind of driving my OCD crazy. I made it out of the Airport without getting anything stolen or hijacked by The Cartel. I found the guy holding the Toyota and the whisked me off in a Toyota Hiace. I’ve never seen one in person. At least Verizon isn’t creepy, I got a text shortly after I landed telling me that my service will work while I’m here.

I made to the resort. What a wild ride. There was another couple on the van ride here. I talked to them for most of the way. The Cancun area is quite diverse. There are areas that look like what you would find around larger cities and then there are husks of buildings where someone has set up a pottery shop out of a van. The traffic is crazy and the roads are terrible. It’s beautiful though. Time to get checked in.

All checked in. The guy couldn’t find my reservation. Big surprise, they spelled my name wrong. They brought me a glass of champagne though. For the first time I can remember, I actually had some wine bring my bags to the room. Speaking of the room, its amazing. Time to get settled and look around.

I walked around and took in some of the sights. There is so much to see. The view from the room is amazing.

Went to the “meet and greet” for Toyota. It was on the rooftop bar. Met some new people and talked to a few people I already knew. Everyone should know that I’m not that sociable. The bar had a spectacular view.

It’s off to bed I go. It’s been a full day. I’ve been up for around 19 hours I need sleep.

Aaaand I’m awake.