Miasmatic Review

Tennessee the round up.

I’m sorry I didn’t post about Saturday’s game, but we were celebrating pretty hard. Bloodspite and I got up early on Saturday so we could find a decent parking space at the game. Since all the close by parking is reserved for alumni or season ticket holders, we had about a quarter mile walk to the stadium. Bloodspite dropped the bomb on me Friday that the stadium was dry… meaning no alcohol. So I figured the pre-game partying there would be beer available. Wrong! It was on campus so no beer. Oh well, we can live with out beer. Beer to football is like steak sauce to steak. The steak is great on it’s own, but the sauce just adds a little extra something to it. We did go to the Volunteer Village to hang out with all the co-eds, fans, co-eds, alumni, co-eds and cheerleaders. We also picked up some free swag they were giving out. Including pictures and autographs.

Two hours prior to the game the was the Vol-walk, a tradition where the players walk from the athletic center to the stadium so all the fans can shake their hands and cheer on the team. Now I’m not a Tennessee fan, but I was rooting for them. Bloodspite, on the other hand, is a different story. Folks let me say he feels about Tennessee the same way I feel about the Packers. When the walk started and he realized we picked out front row seats he was ecstatic. When the team started coming down he was down right giddy. After shaking Eric Ainge’s hand I thought he was going to start jumping up and down, giggling like a little girl. Hell, he damn near bragged about it to his mother the whole day. Then again if it had been Brett Favre, I probably would have been the exact same way.

After the walk we went to the stadium to watch the game. This is a huge stadium. Officially Neyland Stadium seats 102,037 but I kid you not there were like 105,600 some people there. They actually sell standing room tickets I guess. Our seats were three rows from the top of the southwest end zone. The only complaints I had wasn’t the location of the seats, we could see just fine and it was nice to see plays open up. My issues were that there is no legroom in this section; we were packed in tight. The reason there is no legroom is that this is a steep stadium. The people in front of me could use my knees as a headrest. If you have a fear of heights, do not get seats this high up. Hell it about caused vertigo in me.

The game was good, well good for us. Tennessee won 34-13 over the Arkansas Razorbacks. We were sitting in a sea of razorback fans. Fortunately their smack talk started dying shortly after the game started. After the game we headed back to the hotel and met up with Bloodspite’s cousin. We drank some beer, went to Wild Wings Café for some hot wings, nachos and more beer. Someone stole a bucket that was used to deliver beer. I’m not saying who it was… but I had two accomplices. After dinner we went back to the hotel were we had beer left over from the previous night’s beer search. About a case into the night T1G calls and proceeds to get upset with me over drunkenly questioning him about “a new roommate”. I just had to point out that it was his fault that he called me when I was drunk! Some people!

Sunday morning I headed out early. I wanted to get home in a decent hour and I had a ten-hour drive ahead of me. Everything started out great, there was almost no traffic and I was making good time. About an hour and fifteen minutes into the trip my phone rings. It’s Bloodspite wanting to know if I had his car keys. I hadn’t seen them when I was loading, but I told him I needed to top of the tank so I would stop and look. I checked the door, the floor, the glove compartment, under the seat, the center counsel, between the seats and there weren’t in there. So he went back to checking the room. I get gas, hit the bathroom, buy something to drink and get back on the road. He asks me if I’m sure they aren’t in my car. I assure him they aren’t. He asks me to check again so I tell him at the next off ramp I’ll pull over and research the vehicle. Now of course I’m curious so while I’m drinking up and down this curvy mountain highway I’m reaching around. I look up just in time to see me careening toward a guardrail. I slam on the breaks and swerve. Then something hits the back of my foot… There were his keys. In the wild driving the night before they must have slid under my seat. I didn’t even think to look under my seat. Now I have to turn around and bring him his keys.

To make up for all the lost time I’m driving a bit faster then before. I made the return trip in just under an hour. I did the same thing on the way home. I found a vehicle going faster then I was and pulled in behind them and kept this up all the way home. In fact on the stretch between Indianapolis and Chicago on I-65, I was doing in excess of 100 mph keeping up with the pack. What should have only taken me 10 hours took me 10.5 (with a 2.5 hour detour to return the keys). See I think this was Bloodspite’s way of balancing out the trip. He had a 14-hour drive and was trying to make me share his pain.

Overall I had a great time and to be honest I may have to look into heading back next year. It was just that much fun.