TUESDAY - We start off on a stormy morning

TUESDAY - We left this morning shortly after 2am and had a wintry, stormy drive to Moline. Our taxi service was excellent though and our driver had us there on time. Our flight was canceled because of weather.

Thanks to a very good ticket agent (and arriving 2 hours before our flight time) we arranged a new flight through Detroit and remain amazingly on schedule so far.

Snow and a bitterly cold wind swirled in through the cabin door as we boarded. The perfect sendoff for a flight to Russia I thought. After some serious de-icing, we took off, amber-tinted dawn just breaking through the cabin windows and across our tired faces.

As the ground quickly receded beneath us, I noticed, as with most trips I take, the worries I had about traveling melted away as soon as we were in the air. I remembered this pattern now. Maybe I wasn't such a bad traveler after all. I just needed to be traveling.