After spending a good two days packing it’s now time to head to the airport to start my journey covering the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England.

My parents and my girlfriend Stacy DeBruyne took me to the airport. Saying good by to friends and family is the hardest part, due to the fact I won’t be able to make regular phone calls home and that I will be 5 hours head of the Eastern Time zone.

I flew out of Toledo Express Airport about 15 min away from my place. It’s a really small airport with 5 gates. The on going joke that I have with the airport is that it’s so small that the people who take your bags, also board the plane, and navigate the plane out of the gate. I was right! The guy who checked my bags also boarded the plane!

Walking into the airport, a quick look right then left and it was a total ghost town as usual! When I was checking my bags, I told the guy my bag was right around 50 lbs and he said “Don’t worry about it, it doesn’t even matter.” Great! Saves me money! On to security! Usually there are hundred of people waiting to go through security. I was the only person! The TSA agent goes “Please take off your watch, shoes, belt and place them in the bin” I had already done so and he goes do you fly a lot? I replied with yes, this isn’t my first rodeo. He laughed and I went through the body scanner. I was through security in a record time of 2 minutes.

I got to gate #3 of 5 and there where about 20 people waiting for the small commuter jet to Chicago. Usually on small planes ThinkTank Roller bags are usually way to big to fit in the overhead bin, so they usually force you to gate check the bag and you get it back right at the gate when you land. I am super nervous about that and even more so today as this is my gear I will need to use when I am in London. My usual approach is to sweet talk the flight attendant into allowing me to stick it in the leg area of an empty seat. She wasn’t to hard to persuade!

After some finagling I got my bag into the empty area in the seat next to me.

As soon as we were taking off, I notice the sun peaking through the clouds to make for a nice image.

Once I landed in Chicago I was off to the bar to kill 2 hours before my flight takes off to London.

Boarding my flight to London was a piece of cake, it was a huge 3x5x3 plane. I stuck my roller bag in the overhead bin and proceed to my seat. I was originally supposes to be sitting in a window seat but once I realized I was on the wing I had to move! I noticed a couple that were separated across the isle and I figured they would want to sit together so I graciously volunteered to switch. By me switching it gave me 3 open seats next to me where I will be laying down to take a nap when I get tired.

As I am writing this, we are currently at 37,000 feet in the air cursing at a speed of 609 MPH with 3,944 miles and 5 1/2 hours left in the flight.

Will post a welcoming blog from London when I land!