Chirstmas trip to Memphis

I woke up on Saturday with a sore throat verging on Laryngitis and a 6:20 flight. I had the flu a couple of day last week, and almost canceled the flight. I made through the airport screen line in about an hour and got on The Embraer 175, but not before getting my carry on gate checked (Normally not a problem with a 175, but I figured OK, I'll get it back at the gate. For the drink service, I Ordered a hot tea. it took a while, as the cart didn't have hot water, and it had to come from first class:
Of course, my seatmate was a Chatty Cathy. just what I needed. The View was pretty much like this all the way:
coming over Lake Michigan:
Coming in over Minneapolis: And then when I got off at MSP, my Bag was no where to be found! we were at the 'D' gates , and they had no provision for gate check bags. would I like to check it all the through? I polite declined and headed for the baggage claim office outside security, and then spent another hour and half in a security line. I was going to roam around, but knew I needed to find my plane to Memphis. I did find this fellow: and got some more tea from Caribou: before finding my A319 to Memphis: A Big Boy giving Santa a helping hand: Quincy, IL: Missouri River: Yep, that looks like Memphis: and then things got interesting. Like when the rental car place gave me the keys to a Hyundai Genesis (a $40,000 car) instead of a Chrysler 200. But that's another story: