Day 0, 1K Country Adventure: Bloomington, MN

The eagle has landed! We arrived in Minneapolis-St. Paul (via ASE and DEN) early this afternoon after one of the smoothest travel days I can remember. Flights on time… just a little turbulence… kids well behaved. All the ingredients for an easy flying day.

Our hotel for the night, before our 1K Country Adventure officially begins tomorrow: Country Inn & Suites By Carlson Bloomington Mall of America. Yep, we’re literally across the street from this behemoth of a shopping center that TwinCitiesGal Beth Blair has described here before.

In fact, earlier this evening my family actually went to the mall — and Nickelodeon Universe – with TwinCities Beth and her family. Truly, as much fun as this upcoming mystery road trip is going to be (and I know it’s going to be incredible) the one  highlight I’ve really been looking forward to in regards to this entire adventure is seeing the Blairs.

The last I set eyes on Beth’s husband and two young children was waaaaaay back in November 2007  in Palm Springs, when we were both at a travel-writing conference (first time we met IRL). This was well before we even started a blog together. So, it was great fun for our families to all be together — I even got to see the Blairs’ cozy and fabulous new Minnesota home!

Another highlight today: meeting all the people who I’ve been talking with behind the scenes while preparing for this grand adventure. So much time and effort has gone into organizing our itinerary, filming our video clues, lining up product sponsors… my family sure is grateful for all of their hard work!

And it was great fun to put faces to the names and Twitter handles of my fellow participants, Ross Sveback & Sharlene Earnshaw. I’m sure will be getting to know each other a lot better as our paths cross at our schedules “Suite Stops” and our overnight Country Inns in the coming week.

I’ve got loads more to say — about this Country Inn & Suites property, all of the cool gear we’re taking along with us and the kick-butt car from Avis that we’re going to drive (cannot wait to get behind the wheel of our Ford Flex). But, I’m so tired, it’s almost midnight, and I’m guessing we have a fun-filled and busy day ahead of us tomorrow.

After breakfast here at the hotel, we’ll message the 1K Country Adventure Hotline for our first clue, to learn what we need to do and where we need to go to complete our first Suite Stop. Then we’ll message the Adventure Hotline again to get our next clue and next mission … eventually we’ll end up at a Country Inn & Suites property for the night. (I’m thinking maybe we’ll just spend our day in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and return to this hotel tomorrow — but that’s just my guess…)

Check in here tomorrow night for a rundown of what excitement Day 1 brings!

Previous posts: My Family’s Embarking on a Mystery Road Trip

Disclosure: A significant portion of the costs and resources for my family’s participation in the 1K Country Adventure was provided by Country Inns & Suites by Carlson.