walkin' in memphis

well, not walkin per se yet, but i'm here!

what a couple of days...

yesterday was fine... drove from jersey to pitt with no unexpected delays -- got a box of peaches at a farmers market on the way -- quite tasty... only aunt priscilla and step-cousin danelle were in town, so once i got there the 3 of us went out for dinner and saw shrek 2, and there was an extra scene at the end that i didn't remember from the first time through, so it was a party :-)

today was the entertaining day -- i got out of aunt priscilla's half an hour later than planned, then headed straight for columbus

there, i met up with travis (aka black death)... he was pretty much as expected... between having a picture of him, and having talked to him quite a bit on the phone in the past week, it was just fun to merge the voice and the picture and interact with him in person... we met at a cracker barrel just south of the city and chatted for an hour and a half before i headed further south... he also gave me 2 CDs (one is savatage (precursor to transsiberian orchestra (you know their carol of the bells/christmas eve sarjevo song whether you think you do or not), and the other he wouldn't say who it was -- i really liked it,... and i looked it up online... tracks 1-14 are zakk wylde -- book of shadows but there's a few on the end, and i really want to know who tracks 16 and 17 are because they didn't seem to fit stylistically with the rest of the disc... halfway wondering if they're him playing or not... we shall see..

anyhow, after lunch i travis called again mandating i give him my reviews of the CDs :-P, scott called to say hi, and eric called to tell me he finally has a car! party indeed :-)

by the time the two CDs ran out, i hit major crazy rain around louisville, kentucky... i.e. even with wipers on the fastest setting i couldn't see the car in front of me for awhile, and lightning hit so close to the road once i could feel the ground shake.

that survived, i was so pleased to make a pit stop in bowling green, kentucky (just barely north of the TN border) and talk to people with genuine southern accents... no matter how long you've been gone, the first real "southern" stop, is the best ever :-)

also passed the oscar meier weiner mobile on I-65 in central kentucky and was greatly amused :-)

as i crossed into TN i got a rainbow overhead from the passing storms... skirted around nashville fine and watched sunset as i headed west, however, as soon as the sun was gone, this huge dome-shaped cloud formed over jackson/memphis.... it looked like a mountain in the distance only the land is mostly flat and you could see lightning flashing through it every few seconds -- i drove towards that without being IN the storm for an hour and a half before i finally hit it -- it was amazing to watch! too bad you can't time taking pictures with when lightning takes off! anyhow, the 45 minutes of storm to my front door survived, my stuff is in the house, and i have a bunch of people to call :-P

night y'all!