Rarely do I write a journal at the end of the day. Most of the time I seem to write in spurts of two or three entries during the course of the day. Usually this is easier because this is not a diary, it's more of a commentary. So I don't need to write things down before I forget. This is one of the rare cases where I do want to write while my thoughts are fresh, because I don't know if I'll have a chance in the next few days and by then my impressions will have already faded.

As I write this entry, I'm sitting in a hotel room in the Memphis Marriott, the one a giant's stone throw away from the Memphis Airport. It is 01:45 local, although I will remain on California time since I'm only going to be here a few more days. My first brief impression of Memphis is that it's hot and, most importantly, humid. 90 degrees Fahrenheit with near 100% humidity is a lot harder to take than 100 degrees, for someone used to California's version of hot weather.

But I digress, I want to write about the experience of flying on an airplane. Since we took three airplanes today to get here, I believe I've gotten enough to be impressed and rather sickened by the events of the day. Not that flying is a bad way to go, but I'd rather drive all day than fly all day, or even drive three days than fly one day.

The first flight was the first flight I've been on in a couple of years, so it was a nice experience. A jet airplane -- we were on a Boeing 737 -- is truly a marvel. I had a window seat and could look out at the tarmac. There is this push as the airplane rapidly accelerates on the runway. And then it's as if a hand comes up form the ground and pushes the airplane straight up, while it's accelerating forewards.

Suddenly you're being pushed back diagonally downwards, and you can look outside and see the ground rapidly move away from you. You're honest to goodness flying, with nothing but the sheer force of aerodynamics holding a multi-ton airplane up in the sky. And the only comparable experience is when the airplane starts descending for a landing. Then you can feel your stomach dropping, depending on the skill of the pilot and the vagaries of windshears. You're going down and your body knows it and deep down inside there's a slight apprehension that this momentary downturn will turn into something disastrous. It's quite thrilling.

But a 737 is a rather small airplane. Only one aisle with three rows on either side, and the seats are cramped for me. The first and third flights were on 737s and they were short hops of less than 90 minutes each, so it wasn't too bad. Although after two flights, the third one was starting to wear me down and make me nauseous. The second flight was on a 767 which has two aisles with two rows on the edges and three rows in the middle. The seats are bigger, there's inflight programming, and a generally brighter and smoother ride since it's a bigger airplane. That leg was 2.5 hours and quite nice.

Clouds are weird beasts, probably because I don't really understand how they work. We flew through cloud cover, and inside a cloud it's this gray-white nothingness. You can see the wings but nothing else all around, with absolutely no references as to how thick the clouds are. There is this all around light, filtered so that it's a bit darker inside, like in a room with flourescent lighting. Not dark and yet definitely not daylight.

And clouds are so well defined. The edges are these tuffs and wisps of white water vapor. How does a cloud stay together? You'd think it would disperse by some kind of osmosis effect. Also, it's uncanny how they keep to a certain altitude. It's like all the clouds have been sheared off at the bottom, a magical barrier wherein a cloud can't exist. And when you're above the clouds, the play off sunlight off of the tops is quite a sight. I've seen photographs, but they don't have the same impact as actually being there and seeing things with your own eyes.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the trip to Memphis. Maybe I'll have different observations on the trip back, as once again we'll be on three flights. I had more to say, and I was thinking about what I'd write as I experienced these events. But only a few hours later I've already forgotten some of my thoughts and the exact wordings, so the words that make it on this page are the official record of note.