Peru! Monday, June 11 - 1st day -Omaha to Kansas City to Fort Lauderdale

I worked all day and night to finish my last website and do laundry and dishes and clean and work on another website and get all the things in order that need to be in order when you're not going to be home for a month. Beth called to come over and say goodbye and I didn't even realize it had been 8 hours of working. I quickly finished everything and went and had nachos and a $4.50 Bulleit bourbon on the rocks at the Old Dundee bar and grill and then headed out in my car to Kansas City.

The drive was fun for me. It was lightning the whole time, illuminating the sky every few seconds, and didn't rain at all for awhile. Then it did. It rained hard enough to almost make me pull over and stop under a bridge. But I didn't, I did slow down to about 45 in a 70, though. Still fun, I love the rain.

What I did not love was the fact that my buddy totally forgot we had made plans for me to stay the night and get a ride to the airport in the morning at 530am. He was out of town. So...I arranged to park my car at another friend's house, who was also out of town, on her honeymoon, leave my key and a note in her mailbox just in case anything were to happen. I slept in my car and called a cab to the airport at about 5 am.

It wasn't quite that simple, though. The cab I had arranged to pick me up at 530 called at 5 to say he had a flat tire and his jack wasn't working, so I should call another cab. I had another number in my phone from calling a couple places the night before, got them on the line and arranged pickup. He called back at 520 to say he was stuck in a flash flood and couldn't make it, and gave me a 3^rd number. Finally, the third man arrived and it was raining so hard that going from my car to his, 4 feet away, I almost locked my keys in the car and was completely soaked.

Finally got to MCI, to see some young punk almost punch an airline employee for not allowing his grandpa to bring a huge bag on board. I got on no problem, I had all my things for carry-on. A pretty big backpack and a chest strap camera bag. No checking, Mark and I decided, was the way to go. I had a good flight, chatting with my neighbor and napping to Dallas Fort Worth for a plane switch. Had a 30 minute layover and met a nice flight partner from Arkansas named Jennifer. We talked for awhile, then I slept again for about 2 hours.

In Fort Lauderdale (FLL) rented a Chevy Impala, drove to Daria Beach, in between Fort Lauderdale and Miami to meet up with Mark, my journey mate at our hotel, a very nice suite. I immediately found him at the pool and I changed and relaxed, laid out and swam for about an hour or so. Then we showered and got ready for the baseball game in Miami. Marlins vs Red Sox, $20 tickets.

Drove to Miami with help from my phone GPS. The stadium was pretty cool from the outside, but inside was kind of kiddish, neon, weird, with a crappy field. We watched several innings, I spent $20+ on a cocktail and a subpar cuban sandwich and we looked around the stadium, seeing different innings from different angles.

Afterwards, hit up the Walgreen's across the street for a contact case, since mine had leaked in my bag. Saw some drunk guys tickle an employee, bought some $6 sandals and headed back to the car. We had sort of a weird experience earlier where we weren't sure if our parking space was legit or not, you had to call a number and they told us they wasn't a spot there, we told them there was and it was weird. Nonetheless, our car was still there, and we headed out.

Even with GPS, we got lost 2-3 times trying to find the interstate entrance in pretty heavy game traffic. Finally, we righted the ship and made it back to the hotel. Had a cocktail at a nearby bar and to bed. Even with the naps during the flights, I had only gotten about 3-4 hours of sleep. It is 116am. Goodnight. Hello Lima tomorrow!