I left Indianapolis at 5:30 am local time. Indianapolis is in the eastern time zone so to me and my body, it felt like it was 4:30 am. I don't even remember the last time I woke up at 6 am let alone 4:30. The weird thing about it is that after I woke myself up, I went into autopilot mode. I don't remember thinking any thought other then "Load the car. Don't forget anything." Well, I loaded the car fine but of course I forgot something. It didn't take me long to remember what I left which ended up being a towel (no biggy, it's all yours Matthew).
It was on my drive from Indianapolis to Nashville where I made up a new game to play if you are ever stuck in a car for a long period of time. It doesn't really have a title but for the sake of me explaining it, I'll call it the Scan Game. As you can tell by the name it is played while using the scan feature on your radio. If you don't have a radio or if the scan button is not on satellite radio then I don't know what to tell you. Sorry, you can't play. Anyway, you hit the scan button and let it do it's magic. You see if you can recognize the song being played and if it's singable then stop the scan and sing away. All you have to do next is hit scan again if you do not like the song that is played next and the fun continues. This is how I spent at least half of my drive so I'm somewhat of an expert at the game. So you don't want to challenge me in the Scan Game. Trust me.
Because I left so damn early on this cold and snowy Monday morning (4:30 am if you need a reminder), I got into Nashville very early (around 9:30, I also gained an hour by traveling back into the central time zone). This was good because I got to spend more time with Sam! Of course Sam had to get his lifting in for the day before I arrived so as I got to his place he was dressed in normal Sam gear: athletic shoes, gym shorts, no shirt, and a smile. I was also excited to see a little guy that I hadn't seen in awhile and I was worried that he would not remember me. I hadn't seen Bruce in months and we kinda ended on bad terms (long story long: we were "complicated" on fb for a long time because we couldn't see eye to eye on a lot of things but we both cared about each other. There was the fact that he was a cat and also Sam and Katie's child (they got jealous that he liked me so much) and then there was the situation with me and how I like female human beings. It wasn't working as well as it could have). Almost before I could lock Lucy away in her cage, Bruce was all in my grill, we had a good cuddle and it was back to old times again.
After I finished sneezing (allergic to cats) Sam and I played a few games to reminisce about Minneapolis. The first game that we like to play is we try and guess which flavor of yogurt that we are eating. It sounds really lame but we usually do this after, how do I say this, we are in an altered state of mind(?) and let me tell you, it's damn near impossible to guess the flavor. It makes no sense but apparently all yogurt just taste fruity and beyond that it's up to you. Crazy, I know but again, trust me on this one. The second game that Sam and I enjoy is a good Guitar Hero set; or as we like to call it, band practice. You see, we are so good at playing Guitar Hero that it's like we are actually in a band, that and we like to pretend that we are actually rockers. I'm not sure if I've ever expressed my feelings towards Guitar Hero but if not, it's the greatest game in the world. Ever. Let's move on.
The best part about the first day in Nashville is that Sam had a list of things he wanted to show me and for all of you that don't know Sam, this is very typical behavior. It's not a bad thing so chill out Sam. I know you are going to text me and say something like "I read your blog and you said that writing out a list is typical for me, what does that mean huh?" I'm telling you now, it's probably a good thing so be happy. Anyway, most of the list were of things that I had no interest seeing so I mentally crossed those off in my head. We instead walked around the Vanderbilt campus with Lucy along for the walk as she had been cooped up in a car most of the day. Overall it is a very nice campus but it has the same infatuation with naked men as the Mayo Clinic does in Rochester. Ok, we get it, it’s art and the natural state of a human but c’mon. Keep it in your own house or something.
While in Nashville, Sam and I had lunch at a few places which we all very tasty and basically hung out and caught up on lost time which was fun. One thing of note is that I ate at a Jack-In-The-Box for the first time. It was my breakfast for Tuesday morning and it was very good. In Minneapolis, Jack-In-The-Box is what Sonic used to be: unattainable since there were no restaurants in the area to eat at but they fed you commercial after commercial basically teasing you. The moment that I saw the Jack-In-The-Box I knew that I had to eat there and so I did.
One thing that I have to mention was the “Storm of the Decade” that happened while I was in Nashville. I think it was Tuesday night when I was watching Conan and I saw that a bunch of schools were closing. I was very curious as to why all of Nashville was shutting down so I did some investigating to find out that the city was expecting 1-3 inches of snow throughout the next day. Let me repeat that, 1-3 inches. Not feet. Not meters. Inches. I couldn’t believe it until Sam told me the next day that it was their first snowfall in years. These people freak out then water freezes and have no idea how to drive/act/live/survive in it. It’s quite comical to think about but I'd probably feel the same if I lived in the region. Since Nashville greeted me with snowfall, it decided to treat me to a farewell snowfall as well. So much for escaping to the south to get away from snow…
(I suppose I should say something about the National Championship Game… Obviously it would have been a totally different game if Colt McCoy didn’t get injured but I thought Bama was going to win anyway so whatever. It would have been nice to see Colt gunsling one last time in the college game because he was a fun player to watch. Bama is tough and they are only going to get better as Saben’s recruits will start to show up in the coming years.)
Nothing too eventful happened on my drive to Nashville to Roanoke. I drove through more snowfalls (5 total on my drive, seriously?) and through mountains for the first time of my life (that I can recall). I was pretty mesmerized by the “big ass hills” as I like to call them. Something about how two landmasses crashed into each other and kept going until mountains formed fascinates me. It was pretty cool to drive through and I wished I could have taken more pictures but it wasn’t exactly the safest thing to be doing while driving on potentially icy roads. One stop I did make was in Knoxville to check out Rocky Top /Neyland Stadium. I couldn’t see much of it but I walked around it a little bit and took some pictures. One picture that I didn’t take was of Lucy taking a dump right in front of the main entrance. Take that Lane Kiffin!
I’ll never in my life forget the drive into Salem/Roanoke. The mountains were at their highest that I had seen them and the sun came out for the first time all day. The sight was very breathtaking and I think the weight of everything hit me. “I live here now” is all I could think of and it’s true. I actually live outside of the midwest. I live in the eastern time zone. It’s weird to say and it puts in perspective how on my own I really am. No more are the days where I can drive an hour to see my parents and do my laundry. Now, a plane ride takes longer then that if I wanted to go home.
I want to thank all that made the journey possible. Grandma & Grandpa, Matt Diehl, Sam Leof thank you for letting me use your home as my temporary one. Thanks Mom and Dad for the love and encouragement and thanks Lucy for sleeping nearly all of the drive. That made things really easy. Now on to the photos!
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