Got into Memphis, TN pretty late Wednesday evening. We got on the road right around 6:00pm, as I figured we would. However, sometime shortly outside of Trinity, AL we realized that I had not grabbed Jennifer's home-made chocolate truffles from the freezer. Doubling back for that added about another hour to the trip, putting us at my parents' house around 11:00pm. It was my fault, I admit; but it was the only thing I forgot, considering all the gifts, luggage, food, and cat paraphernalia that I had stuffed into the Pontiac, that's not too bad.
The intent of the day was to finally redeem the birthday gift I got from my parents - an introductory flight lesson at Downtown Aviation. Dad was originally going to join me (he nabbed a lesson for himself on some discount online store), but had to cancel due to work demands, so Jennifer rode along instead. Getting started was a little bumpy: 1) I had a 10:00am reservation, which they had marked down; however, no instructor had been booked. We got started at 10:30am, which was good enough; Doug was a great guy 2) After the pre-flight check-out of our Cessna 172, we couldn't get her engine to turn over due to the recent cold snap. The eventually got her running (by jumping her off with a Suburban! - I think).
I wasn't quite sure how it was going to go, other than my certainty that I would not be doing the taking off or the landing. Once we got airborne and above 1200 ft, however, I had the stick. In a word: Righteous. Mind you, Doug was in more control than a driving instructor the entire time (I didn't really fool with the throttle). We made a few turns, buzzed downtown Memphis, and flew under the Hernando-Desoto bridge (well, not really, but how cool would that have been?). A short 30 minutes in the air, but it was awesome. I may just be hooked.
Later in the day, we met up with Angela Dunn to exchange Christmas presents. We got her some UT salt-and-pepper shakers, she gave us a picture frame and some home-made cookies. I think we won that little exchange, but at least Angela's chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal-raisin cookies don't look the same.
We wrapped up the day with dinner with my parents & Blake at Memphis Pizza Cafe. Delicious.
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