The Jackson, MS Chronicles: The First Night

Once we got our baggage from the baggage claim, Auntee and I took a cab to our hotel, the LaQuinta Inn. One thing I noticed during the ride to the hotel is that Jackson has a ton of restaurants. I saw virtually every type of restaurant I could see. This included, oddly enough, several Japanese restaurants. Also, Jackson is pretty dark. Even in the more commercial areas around our hotel, it seemed a lot darker than Chicago.

When we got to our hotel, we checked in and briefly rested in our room. The room had two beds, a TV, a dresser, a nightstand, a desk with chair, a closet with an iron and ironing board, and a bathroom which also had a coffee maker and a hair dryer. The TV featured a cool pay-per-view On Demand system, with movies, TV shows, Music, Internet, Video Games, and about 25 channels of free TV. More on that a little later.

After we set down our things, we left the hotel and walked to Chili's to get something to eat for dinner. This is when I noticed an annoying thing about Jackson...a lot of areas have no sidewalks. Certain areas of Jackson revolve around highways and frontage roads. So, for Auntee and I to walk to Chili's, we had to quite literally walk in the street, in a "lane" that had reflectors on it.

After eating at Chili's (which was delicious), we went back to our room and ordered a movie, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. Auntee hadn't seen the film, and I enjoyed watching it again. Of course, Auntee fell asleep on the film a couple of times. After all, it was after 11:00 p.m. when we started the two-hour-plus film. After the film ended (I actually watched all the credits this time...they are exceedingly cool), I watched a little TV and then attempted to go to sleep. For some reason, I was really anxious and worrying about Sunday's flights. Yeah, I know...I'm paranoid. However, nothing could prepare me for what did happen that next day.