Starkville Wrapup

James and I went to Starkville last weekend. You want to hear about it? Aight. We had an eaaarly flight (6 AM'ish) from Austin to Jackson with a quick stop in Houston. The snow had been causing airport issues, but our flight was listed as a go when we left the house. We boarded our Southwest flight, and put some of our belongings in the middle seat to make it look occupied. They announced that the flight was completely full on several occasions, but we were holding out hope that we'd keep that comfort seat open. Everyone had boarded and the seat was still clear. I should rephrase that. Everyone that had gotten to the airport on time had boarded, and the seat was still clear. They continue to hold the plane at the gate while a high school cheerleading team trickled in. The seat was soon occupied, and before we knew it we were being asked how to buckle the seat belt. After our instructions failed to get the task done, I ended up having to buckle it for the poor girl.

Running long here--let me condense this down some. We get to Houston and are told our flight to Jackson is canceled. We're directed to stand in a line of 40-50 other folks trying to arrange alternative plans. A couple girls behind us were trying to make it to Jackson for a Saturday wedding (we'll circle back to them later). We stood near the end of this line for a few minutes when a dude from the front of the line walks up and asks if we're headed to Jackson. We affirm and he tells us that the remaining two flights are booked, that we could try to get on standby, but the odds of that aren't good. He then makes his proposal. He has rented a car and we can ride with him. We're not people to pass up a long ride with a stranger, so off we went.

Turns out he went to Ole Miss, and we worked out our 3 degrees of separation. The most notable part of this trip is we didn't stop once the entire trip; not for gas, not for bathroom breaks, and not for food. We left Houston right after 9AM, and he dropped us off at the terminal in Jackson at 2:52PM. That's fast, and it was snowing most of the way on I-55 in MS. Another funny thing to note about this leg of the trip. Ol' boy and I were discussing Toyota vehicles (we had passed a truck hauling new 'yotas). His family owns them and he vouches for their safety. Turns out he had hydroplaned off the road and rolled his car a while back, but made it out basically unharmed. Information like this would probably been helpful before we got in the car seeing that we had been hauling ace through the snow while the driver checked his Blackberry. James must have been too wrapped up in browsing Please Rob Me, as he missed that gem.

The only thing I want to report on in Starkville is the new Grill. The new location is open. It's very restauranty now. We stopped in around 11:30 PM Friday night.



Busy, huh? The main area has a bunch of booths. We met Clay and Shay up there on Sat. and heard maybe the worst news of all--they changed the honey mustard! They're now using the Sweet Peppers formula. (I wonder if they used my concept)

Well, one more thing, then I'm out. We saw this whip on campus.