Actually to be truthful,I have never really liked living in Iowa.Seems boring sometimes.But when you see the people come together through things like this it is extraordinary.Gives ya a good feeling in your heart and you realize this f**ked up world isnt quite as bad as it seems sometimes.Its kinda nice. Not as nice as a sheer Wicked Weasel with the top half missing,but hey,thats what vacation is all about.Right?
Believe me, not that there is any advantage to a hurricane over a tornado - living where I live- but at least you know when a hurricane is close to you. There's not much advanced warning for tornadoes! We certainly empathize with the flooding in the Midwest. Hope it will end soon for you.
Just spoke to the front desk at our hotel and they are not affected by the evacuations and flooding. The coordinator for the golf outing says the golf course is actually on much higher ground a few miles outside of Cedar Rapids and the golfing is still on for Saturday. I am wondering if we will be able to visit our favorite bar/pizza joint in the Czech Village though. Hope they have fared Ok. I may try and call there tomorrow. A portion of I 80 will be closed tomorrow so we have to take an alternate route out there though.
Wilma in 2005 I scheduled a trip to Cancun back in '05 for late October with a group of friends thinking we would be clear of severe weather. Yeah...that didn't work out so well. 2 days before my trip I knew I was gonna run into a travelling nightmare. The early morning (3am) of my departure, I checked one last time if AA had cancelled my flight to Cancun via Miami, NOPE ! I had the last scheduled flight out of Miami to Cancun. I bitched and complained that they had not cancelled it leaving me on the hook to cancel and deal with the cancellation fee OR travel to Cancun and immediately check-in to an emergency shelter. Wasn't a very hard decision for me, I cancelled on my own, but later that day I was notified that a 100% refund would be offered since the airline took initiative (LATE) and credited effected travellers. I guess if you REALLY want to be sure you visit during hurricane-proof times, go December thru April. This time around, I purchased cancellation insurance on our hotel stay thru alpharooms, just $34 per person +/-. Well worth the peace of mind if I need to cancel up to 48 hours before arrival. I hope it turns out to be wasted money in the end. Not often I feel that way about spent money. PS. In the end, I went to Punta Cana in DR. -DJ
We were also booked for Oct. of '05 and were taking all three of our kids with us. The resort cancelled our reservations and refunded our $$ the day Wilma hit Cancun. The airline however, would not cancel and I kept saying to them, "Well, if you're not canceling what are we going to do with three kids down there and no place to stay? The news says the airport is closed, so where are you planning to land??" Finally the day before we were supposed to leave they cancelled our flight. What a nightmare! We ended up in Jamaica and had a blast. Finally visited Cancun for the first time, March 2007 with out the kids and had a blast at BBG!! BTW, we didn't go to Cedar Rapids after all this weekend. They finally called and cancelled the golf outing on Friday but we had decided it probably wasn't going to happen after watching everything on the national news. It just kept getting worse and worse, and now the flooding is so wide spread in Iowa, it's unbelieveable! I just heard this morning that 86 out of the 93 counties in Iowa have been declared disaster areas!
Hi All: I'm in Newton IA tonight - my mom lives here. I left this AM from Chicago on a morning flight - our flight basically flew straight down I-80, past Cedar Rapids and Iowa City where the worst of the flooding is, and on into Des Moines. From the air, this is f'ing bibical looking - the Iowa and Cedar Rivers are both easily 5 miles wide -something you cannot appreciate unless you see it from 25,000 feet up - just amazing. And in Des Moines, while not terrible, it's incredible how high these rivers are. We are also looking at Sept/early Oct time frame. Say a prayer that the weather gods are working their frustrations out up here now and not on Mexico too then! stew
When in Oct are you going? We'll be there the 11th-20th. We go every year except the year Wilma hit (Chris had bad motorcycle accident) And in my opinion it is the best weather of the entire year.
