I'm back

After over 2,500 miles in the middle of the country, I'm back in Boston, sitting on the couch, anticipating a couple weeks of grapefruit, tuna, and workouts to recover from 11 days of dry-rub ribs, crawfish etouffee, bread pudding, cajun popcorn shrimp, beignets, microbrews, hurricanes, and hand grenades. I'm also looking forward to next month's credit card bills by swiftly throwing all catalogs that awaited me into the recycling bin upon my return home. I can use a few weeks of cheap activities to even things out a bit.

I managed to add all 4 of the Starbucks mugs that were issued for cities along our route. None were particularly challenging acquisitions. Twin Cities was in the airport upon arrival, St. Louis was from the Starbucks in our hotel, Memphis was in the Peabody Mall right next to Beale St., and New Orleans was from the Starbucks next door to our hotel. Starbucks city mugs are my crystal meth.

The flights back were uneventful - a full flight from MSY to EWR, and a surprise upgrade for the 35 minute flight from EWR to BOS (I literally just remembered that I actually bought this ticket - Continental won't upgrade reward tickets unless redeemed as a First Class ticket. I did not use miles since it wasn't a round trip and Continental only seems to allow reward travel round trip and from the same city).

At baggage claim in Boston, I half-won the luggage lottery: my suitcase was the very first bag on the carousel, but my red duffel bag was somewhere lost in Airworld until moments ago when Continental's delivery service just dropped it off at my place.