Leaving on a jet plane

Why exactly does one have to fly through Detroit or Memphis in order to get from Philadelphia to Birmingham? Seems like an awful waste of time, but I suppose it somehow saves fuel. I'm really looking forward to the flight - especially now that a pilot managed to land his hefty behemoth airplane in the Hudson River yesterday and all 155 souls got out unscathed. This is the dude I want flying everytime I board an aircraft. HOORAH to the former AirForce pilot who DOESN'T think flying safety means "12 hours from bottle to throttle - or is it 12 feet from bottle to throttle...."
Anywhoo, this time tomorrow I'll be taking off my shoes, my belt, opening my luggage, emptying my pockets and attempting to not look dangerous so they'll allow me to board a small tube packed with a hundred of my closest friends for the next 3 hours. I'll bring a book and my nintendo ds with guitar hero, so I can make a total fool out of myself during the flight.
Since the weather here this morning was 8 degrees Farenheit, with a wind chill of -5, and tomorrow in Alabama is supposed to be 48 and rainy, I'm fully expecting to become sick with some dreadful sinus related virus. Hey - I'm nothing if not optimistic.
I'm also hoping Bob Sykes Barbecue is still open in downtown Bessemer, and that I can persuade my parents to allow me to take them there for a "Big Bob Sandwich meal with pulled pork ("inside meat"), onion rings, jalapeno peppers, chocolate cream pie and unsweetened iced tea". You have to get the inside pulled pork in order to not have pieces of the hard stuff that comes from roasting a pork shoulder over hot hickory for days. The only difficult request I'm making is for the unsweetened iced tea. Iced tea in Alabama is essentially syrup and is served with every meal. I've been drooling over this potential meal for days now.
I also can't wait to see all the kids - Tyler, Matt, Abbie, James, Schyler, and Logan.
Saints preserve us!!!