Tuscany: 4-11 Memphis

A highly interesting first day on the road. I got a mild migraine headache, which is always fun on a plane. My first flight (3+ hours) I had a middle seat between two guys even taller than me. I had to walk about a mile in the Minneapolis Airport, where I also got my shoes shined -- always a treat, I admit, but not as much fun as last time*. Then we saw forest fires out the window of the plane in either Missouri or Arkansas. It looked like to or three burning rings, and you could see the smoke going due north from all of them (turns out it's called the Flatside Fire). That was cool, and we saw it right at sunset.

When I got to Memphis, I realized I didn't have my cell phone. It wasn't on the plane, either. Lost it in Minneapolis. Then I went down to baggage claim, and my bag wasn't there. Nice! In the luggage office I did have a nice "welcome to the south" moment, when a guy's cell phone went off and it played the Alabama Fight Song -- and people recognized it. I also enjoyed telling the airline guy that I had lost a big red duffle bag, with a Grateful Dead patch on it.

My parents had saved dinner, so everybody was tired and hungry when I got home at 9:30, and my niece was at the house, sick, so she and Dad went out to get a prescription. We sat down to eat at 10:15! I took Becky back to her dorm and made it into bed at 11:30.

This morning started out much better. The morning sun shines right into my old bedroom, and my parents' old four-post bed is up there now, with one of those super-comfy foam pads on it. So I woke up after 10 hours of deep sleep, with the sun shining on me, birds singing outside, dogwoods and azaleas blooming, and a new day to face the world. Then I checked my email, to find a very polite "Where's our story" message from a magazine editor back in Portland, so I'm not really on vacation just yet.

So I think I'll go work on that right now!