The actual free kick is not all that impressive but it was fun listening to the Japanese announcers. They sound angry!
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After the game we headed on the long Journey home. This time we traveled north through Tennessee. We stayed the first night in Chattanooga. I’ve always wanted to go there and I must admit it was very pretty.
We got up early Sunday Morning and headed out to finish our journey. Our first goal was to drop my brother off in Nashville so he could fly home. This, overall, went smoothly although; when we hit downtown Nashville we did get into some really heavy game day traffic. The Indianapolis Colts were in town. We thought about how cool it would have been to have had tickets but we didn’t so we continued.
Now, the story up to this point has been pretty uneventful. This is where it starts getting a little more interesting. We drove along the interstate at a cruise controlled pace of about 9 miles above the speed limit. My dad has always told me, “Nine you’re fine, ten you’re mine.” I’ve never had a problem so far so I assume he’s correct.
The day was gorgeous, Tennessee is gorgeous, and since there were few towns on the highway it was pretty scenic. All of sudden, as we cruised enjoying the beautiful forests surrounding us, there was a loud crash killing the Daewoo’s engine instantly. It was still coasting so we glided as far as we could until I had to pull over to the shoulder.
First off we got out and looked under the hood to see what was up, but since neither one of us actually knew what we were actually looking at we grunted and pointed and nodded and then got back in the car having accomplished nothing except confirming the car didn’t work. We weren’t sure where we were but luckily we could see a gas station about a half mile up the road. We were very thankful for this since it had been over 20 miles since we had past the last one.
The lady at the gas station wasn’t all that helpful when we got there. We were expecting the attendant to take pity on us and do what good upstanding people do, give us free food. This didn’t happen and she didn’t even seem too sympathetic to our situation, although she did let us use their phonebook. Wooooo she deserves a medal.
Even without her help we were able to get things done. With that phonebook and mike’s cell phone, we made some calls and hooked up a tow truck who would tow us to the only mechanic open on a Sunday which was the Firestone at the Mall.
We were somewhat optimistic when we left the gas station because the attendant had told us that there was a town only a few miles away and that the town had over 200,000 people. Little did we know that the town was much smaller and would end up being a nightmare in only a few hours time.
On the way back to the car Mike started getting a little worried about our situation. Paranoid might even be a better word to describe it. He started talking about if need be we could live off the land. Then he formulated plans on how we would get food, shelter, and other essential items to sustain us in the woods. He even pulled an old broken cell phone out of the dirt and cleaned it off. When I asked him what he was doing, he wouldn’t say much. He only assured me that this phone could end up saving our lives in the future.
When we got back to the car we ate the last of our supplies which consisted of the Slim Jims we had just purchased and some Ding Dongs from the day before. While we were waiting we documented the situation.
Enjoy the video and stay tuned for part five where it really starts getting interesting.
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Saturday morning we woke up a little sluggish but that quickly faded away like a lite morning fog. It was game day and there was no time for little sissy babies. We were about 10 min from downtown Atlanta so we headed out around 10 am although the game didn’t start to around 6 pm so we could take our time and enjoy the show. First thing we did was find a place to satisfy our morning hunger. It wasn’t too hard to pick a place since Mike had been lobbying all trip for Waffle House. We also had no problem finding one because they seemed to be everywhere. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a restaurant on so many exits that wasn’t McDonalds, Burger King or something fast food like that. It was a good experience altogether, we left extremely satisfied and the building was actually in nice shape, no leaks or anything. It may have been because it wasn’t raining but who am I to judge the dubbya House.
After we ate, we headed to the SEC Championship fan Appreciation thingy. It was fun although there seemed to be way more Florida fans than Arkansas fans and a lot more free Florida stuff was being handed out. After we hung around collecting as much free stuff as we could, we headed over to the bleachers for the pep rally.
The pep rally was awesome. Fans were really getting into it and if I would have had a better camera man maybe you would be able to actually see what was going on, lol.
The best part about it was that we got a picture with cow. Oh Yea, Moo.
One of the most interesting things that happened all trip had to be the selling of the tickets. I had two extra tickets that I had bought that where for my wife and daughter. They ended up not coming so it was my job to sell the tickets. I was a little nervous at first when the tickets didn’t go right away but then all of a sudden it happened. We were sitting out in front of the stadium as people passed. I had my tickets raised high into the air and along came a group of about 8 African Americans. I’m going to explain this part in 1st person so you can get the full effect.
So, how much those tickets going for, asked the large African American who seemed to be the leader of the group? Fifty a piece, I said as a flutter of excitement ran through me with the thought of selling the tickets. I had bought them for $30 a piece, so I would be making a little money on the deal. How bout $40 a piece and you still make money, he said. Nah, I’m a business major, $50 a piece is a steal for you guys. The large frame closed in on me not taking no for an answer. How bout $45, he said. How about $50, that sounds better to me, I said standing my ground. He then proceeded to turn and collect random tens and twenties from his friends. Come on guys lets get some money here, he said. In the end he pulled in 90 bucks and proceeded to sell me on the $45 price again. Come on now, we’re razorback fans. Woo Pig Souie! I’ve got $90 here. Go ahead feel it. It’s beautiful. He then stuffed the fist full of money into my hand and ask, “How does that feel? It feels good huh. I chuckled at that one and went ahead and did the deal. How could I argue with that?
The SEC Championship game was next and it was awesome. We had great seats. We were on the second row in the end zone and we were on TV quite a bit.
I have it recorded and someday before I die I’ll try to put it up. I’m not going to talk too much about the game because my boys lost but even though they did, it was a lot of fun and I’m glad I went.
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Between getting the tickets and the actual game was almost 2 weeks. It wasn’t a great time to be a Razorback fan either. We experienced a heart breaking loss to LSU, our rivals to the south, breaking our 10 game winning streak and watched, in the process, our quarterback play his worst ball of the season. Even with the LSU downer hopes were still very high for the SEC Championship game and I was ready to make the trip.
The planned trip was supposed to be a 4 day 3 night ordeal. Mike Heller would drive in Thursday from a business meeting in Missouri then we would drive out Thursday evening and stay at my grandmother’s house which was about 3 hours away to break up the 12 hour juggernaut of a trip.
Mike arrived as scheduled Thursday afternoon but the weather didn’t cooperate. We had our first storm of the season with Mother Nature dropping over 4 inches of snow. As we were driving around town we saw no less than 5 accidents and countless other automobiles stranded on the side of the road. We hoped the storm would die down but later had to make the call that night not to drive to my grandmother’s house. We would just have to make the 12 hour trip on Friday.
We left early Friday morning and although the going was still slow for the first hour, we were going and the trip was officially underway. The trip down to Atlanta was rather non eventful. The only real problem we had was deciding which way to go. Google and Yahoo gave an alternate route when compared to Map quest. Mike’s a Map quest guy and I’m strictly yahoo, hence our first snag of the trip. We discussed the situation for a while finally reaching a compromise. We would drive to Atlanta by Mike’s route and back by mine. Mike was tough to negotiate with however mainly because he wanted to nock both Alabama and Mississippi off his list of states Traveled to. How can I argue with that?
The drive down was calm and a beautiful drive at that. We did wonder however why there was a highway through the particular part of Mississippi we were driving through because there seemed to be absolutely nothing anywhere mile after mile.
We arrived late into Atlanta Friday evening and decided to try and stay close to the airport because my brother Brian would be flying in Saturday morning at 5 am. At the first hotel we stopped at, I went in to see how much it would be. As I headed in Mike insisted that I give him the thumbs up or thumbs down sign if it was a go or not. He said it reminded him of trips with his family as a kid when his dad would come out and do it. We should have taken a picture of the thumbs up but needless to say this famous prom picture should give you an idea of what it looked like.
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