Home Safe and Sound

I'm back from the Gulf Coast! Had an ugly time getting down there, with three separate mechanical issues on our plane that required our captain to land halfway to Dallas to refuel because one of our fuel tanks wasn't working. Of course I was convinced our plane would kill us all. You can imagine my relief when we finally landed safely in Dallas/Ft. Worth. I missed my connecting flight to Mississippi by three hours, and by the time I finally got another one, I rolled in six hours late.

Had a great time visiting my pal Katie Reus, and her family. We toured ex-Confederate president Jefferson Davis's post Civil War summer home, Beauvoir, and ate some really great Southern BBQ.

We took some long walks past beautiful houses like these:

I even spent some time on a white sand beach enjoying the warm sunshine.
The trip back was smooth, though I came home to subfreezing temps and snow--something we don't get a lot of here in the greater Vancouver area. Snow's supposed to stay up in the mountains where it belongs!

I didn't get very much writing done while I was away, but who can blame me? Had a good time and my whole family was ecstatic to see me again. Sometimes it's good to go away for a bit on my own!

Mississippi Bound

Just found out this weekend that I'm going to Mississippi on Thursday! I'll be spending a few days down there in the comparatively warm temperatures visiting my pal, author Katie Reus, and I can't wait! Well, I mean I'm not looking forward to the flights, which is why my hubby didn't tell me until Saturday afternoon even though he booked the ticket for me in early December. Gives me less time to stress, was his reasoning.

Not sure what we'll wind up doing down there exactly, but I don't really care as long as we get to hang out together. At some point she'll probably wind up tying me to a chair someplace to make me bang out another chapter while I'm there. She's tough like that ;) Plus she keeps freaky weird hours and gets more done by 7 am than most people do in an entire business day. I have high hopes she'll let me sleep in until 7 every morning, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

I don't know if I can interest her in doing some Civil War site tours or maybe a day trip into New Orleans, but for sure I'm going to insist we go eat at a BBQ place we ate at last time down there. My man is gonna be so jealous!

So everyone please send good thoughts and flap your arms for me on Thursday. Uh, and when I fly home on the 17th, too. I'd appreciate it!