Haven't seen Florida in the daylight yet ...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Not this trip, anyway. Hopefully, the sun comes up Wednesday morning.

The Gazette/KCRG crew rolled in here Tuesday night. Fort Lauderdale -- where we're at in the Orange Bowl media hotel, anyhow -- is hoity-toity. I don't like it. I'd rather be in multi-ethnic, multi-national, multi-crazy Miami Beach like the media was for Iowa's previous Orange Bowl.

Boy, some people have big problems, huh?

Two things on the flight down here were heartening.

One, I saw several people reading newspapers. What a quaint notion. Of course, this was when electronic devices were ordered to be shut down.

Two, a baby in the row behind me went on a crying jag before takeoff. And I was trapped in the middle seat of a plane that was at 100 percent capacity, like they all seem to be these days.

But after no more than 15 seconds of the wailing, the mother somehow persuaded the infant to settle down and enjoy the rest of the trip without as much as a whimper. So whoever you were, young mom, thank you. You are a true citizen of the earth, and I'll bet that child grows up to be great.

OK, this is a lot of nothing. Hey, I just got here and the game's over six days away. It'll get football-ey and Florida-ey real fast.

A reminder: If you've got your own tales from the road (they have to be a lot better than the ones I just listed) once you get to south Florida for the game, shoot me an e-mail at mike.hlas@gazcomm.com

I'm going to be out and about in Fort Lauderdale and Miami/Miami Beach when you're here, and we'll discuss a lot of vital issues of the day if we should happen to bump into each other. I may have a Hlog Huddle before the Hawkeye Huddle. Of course, I have a lot of nitwit ideas that I never carry out. And some I do.

Check back here late tomorrow afternoon for the first of many official Orange Bowl Hlog dispatches. End of transmission.