<p>Since my first-year will soon be working for the summer where he will seldom be able to use the internet or phone, we are trying to make as many arrangements as possible now. </p>
<p>Because we have some awkward flight connections, we are planning to shop here and pick up items, such as bedding and towels, in national chain stores (i.e. Bed, Bath and Beyond, Sears, Office Depot) near Grinnell. Does anyone know if it is easier and less out of the way to do this near Des Moines airport of Cedar Rapids airport? Is one airport preferable to another?</p>
<p>On another note, I was happy to see other parents posting here. Although I have two other children in college, my Grinnell first year is the first to go to school more than a day's drive away.</p>
<p>We have found the Des Moines airport to be preferable as it is closer to Grinnell, but I don’t know about shopping opportunities near either airport. Both are plagued by heavy fog in the winter at times and we have been unable to land in Cedar Rapids twice (had to rent a car in Chicago and drive) and our son was fogged out of Des Moines once (had to land in Omaha and be bussed to Des Moines). I have since read on Cc that there is a Trailways bus that runs from Chicago to Grinnell. Anyway, it’s not the most accessible place, but it’s worth it.</p>
<p>There is a BB&B, Sears and Office Depot in Cedar Rapids as well as 2 Super Targets, 2 Super Walmarts, Sams Club and Staples. All are easy to find off the highway (Interstate 380) and about a 15 minute drive from the Cedar Rapids airport (in the opposite direction from Grinnell). Cedar Rapids is about an hour and 15 minute drive to Grinnell. There is a Walmart near Grinnell College as well but I haven’t been inside that one. It didn’t look like a Super Walmart but not sure. I do not know enough about getting from Des Moines airport to area businesses but I do know that Des Moines airport is closer to Grinnell than the Cedar Rapids airport.</p>
<p>Just to throw a totally random thought in here–have you looked at flying to Minneapolis or Chicago instead of to Cedar Rapids or Des Moines? Don’t know where you are coming from, but it is about 4 hours from MSP to Grinnell --easy drive down I-35 and east on I-80 and the connections have GOT to be better. And of course you end up right near the Mall of America, Ikea–shopping mecca!</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about flying in and out of Minneapolis instead of Des Moines for any trips next year. Not that MN doesn’t have bad weather in the winter, but we have had so many problems getting into the IA airports in winter with the fog. I believe Omaha is also pretty close.</p>
<p>Cedar Rapids is such an expensive place to fly in and out of that there was a legislative inquiry. Minneapolis is a quick 4 hour drive in good weather but I-35 drifts terribly in the winter and if there is any wind it is very tiring (you’re going straight through open fields so the wind really picks up steam). We love IKEA so much (from near Cedar Rapids) that we drive into Schaumburg before our kids start college. MPLS would therefore be a great place to fly into in the fall to pick up dorm stuff.
Would not recommend flying into MPLS in the winter. The drive from MPLS down 35 can be exhausting. Done it a bunch.</p>
<p>That’s good info, iadorking. It’s not much fun driving to Grinnell from O’Hare either, but we’ve had to do it twice because we couldn’t land in Cedar Rapids. Have you ever driven from Omaha to Grinnell in the winter?</p>
<p>I agree that the drive from MSP to Grinnell can be really hairy in the winter. In January of 2009, taking son back to school, it was about as bad a drive down I-35 as I have every undertaken (and that’s saying a lot.) This January when he left MSP it was 32 degrees and raining. Fortunately, it was warmer further south or he might have had a bit longer break than he’d planned for. It seems like we have had unusually bad winter weather in the Midwest the last few years.</p>
<p>I-80 is not as dicey in the winter as I-35 because it runs east west not north south. It is not as vulnerable to drifts as I-35. We actually do make the trip to Omaha sometimes to fly on South West (if we head west) since the rates are so much cheaper we can drive from CR to Omaha spend a night in the hotel and still save money (there are usually 4 of us flying). Even if you have cold snowy winters what you need to realize in the plains states are the wind patterns - they affect effect everything. Usually the North South roads will be worse. The wide open fields don’t stop anything.
If we head east we often fly out of Moline. Airtran flies into there and the airport is convenient to I-80. Again the tickets are %50 of flying into Cedar Rapids. Good to check as you compare Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. It’s about a 2 hour drive to Grinnell from there.</p>
<p>I never would have thought of flying to Moline, though I think we’ve driven through there several times when stranded in Chicago. I grew up in MN so I know something about wind and the prairie, but I left as a young driver so I didn’t know the north/south vs east/west thing. Makes sense.</p>
<p>We love Moline airport. The prices are amazing, the flight times are great, and the airport is nice and small, so you don’t need to be there hours ahead. When we fly with D we fly in there, because we rent a car and it doesn’t matter. It is two hours, but it is a very easy drive on 80. I wish Grinnell had a shuttle there, because I think more of the East/Southeast students would use it than Cedar Rapids (which is so expensive). Guess D will either fly out of DSM, or befriend someone from Davenport.</p>
<p>Never flown in there in the winter, but I would imagine that they are susceptible to the same weather conditions as Des Moines or Cedar Rapids. But flying in any other time of the year, we have never been delayed (in fact, usually early).</p>
<p>I believe some of the discount airlines, such as Airtran or Southwest, fly into Moline. I think we will fly into Minneapolis our first trip west since I have wanted to go there for years and never had a chance.</p>