aisforamy

I had a great time in Tennessee! I wish I had had a few more days there, though I missed my family.

Enterprise car rental company is on my s**t list, though, for making me wait over an hour for a car that I reserved three weeks in advance, and making me wait even longer to meet the fabulous lai_lore, who is indeed fabulous. This was made even longer by the fact that I missed my exit, and drove nearly to Kentucky before I found a place to turn around and retrace my route. I got lost a lot while I was there.

Fun and long car trips were had, and the Memphis Zoo and pandas and fish and elephant butts here seen and photographed. And PLANS were made…oh yes…and not just for world domination!

I went from Nashville to Memphis and back, and then I went from Nashville to Knoxville and back, so I went through four tanks of gas in about two and a half days. Whee! Sadly, there was not enough time to visit Graceland, but with great friends living in TN, I will surely have another chance some day.

BUT! I got to see FIREFLIES (or lightning bugs, if that is what they are called where you live)!! We don’t have them in Arizona, and I never realize how much I miss them, until I see them again on visits back east.

My friend, Arwen, in Knoxville has a lovely little family, with an absolutely beautiful and charming daughter. I spent a great day with them, and wished I could have stayed for more, but I just ran out of time. My next trip will need to be better planned.

My flight home was delayed by more than an hour, and was full of seven people in wheelchairs that had to be pre-boarded, and about twenty kids under the age of five that needed similar treatment. It was a hot, noisy flight, and I was one of the last to get on the plane, so ended up beside a woman with a two year old in her lap, and a four year old beside me. It wasn’t bad, except that the boy needed to be entertained for the whole trip, and kept climbing over me to use the bathroom. He listened to my iPod for a while, and colored in my notebook, and ate some of my granola bar…he was cute, but it got old after a while. He just wasn’t interested with all of the stuff that they brought for him to play with, and the poor woman was effectively trapped by the other kid sleeping in her arms.

I was more than ready to get off that plane. I got my luggage and met my husband and kids out on the curb (where they had been circling the terminal for an hour) and we went to dinner.

At home, souvenirs were distributed and argued over, and my dog went nuts to see me again. All in all a satisfying end to my little vacation.

I stayed home today and relaxed and napped and RPed for the first time in what seems like AGES. It was great!

I hope everyone else is doing well! **hugs to all**