@marthagershun it's amazing that with so many set backs, you persisted and surgery was successful, congratulations!
I donated at Rochester Mayo January 2018, traveling from Portland,OR (recipient lived in WI) and agree with many of the reasons you stated about finding a center near home- I forgot about how difficult it was to find a lab AND the dry ice, that seemed harder to arrange than the actual surgery.
One of the benefits for me being so far from home was that I was forced to relax, no working, cleaning etc, just sleeping, reading and walking around. Had I been near home, I'm sure I would have pushed the limit on what my Drs and body wanted me to do so I was grateful that I was able to stay in MN for a bit. I did wish more than once that my recipient lived in FLA or AZ because January in MN is no joke.
I'm so glad that things worked out for both of you.