On October 3, we woke up early to start our long journey to Kona, Hawaii, for the 2011 Ford Ironman World Championship. Everyone was excited, as we loaded up the car and headed for the airport!
Our first flight was only two hours and took us to Chicago. There we saw the first of many travelers in an “Ironman Finisher” t-shirt. The reality of traveling to the Ironman started to sink in when we saw that shirt!
Our second flight was 5 hours long. The boys did great! Aaron read some and ate a lot of candy. Rylan slept for a while, but woke up when he tried to roll over and almost fell off my lap!
Years ago, James and I traveled through LAX on our way to Indonesia. We did not like it then, and our feelings haven’t changed. We shared one of the worst sandwiches I have ever choked down! But, we paid $10 for it, so we finished it! Then, our flight was delayed and we finally ended up leaving more than 2 hours late.
Even with the frustrations, the exciting part about LAX was meeting a lot of people traveling to the Ironman! We talked with a couple who were going to watch his 65-year-old mother race. Rylan played with a little boy his same age, named Cruz. We tried to talk with a group from Spain who had a little boy who kept trying to steal Rylan’s binky! We also talked with many other people, most of which were returning Ironman participants! The reality sunk in even more as we realized about 90% of the people on our plane were traveling to Kona for the Ironman (either as participants or as spectators!)
That had to be an awesome feeling!
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