While I spent the weekend at the KD house, Kyle was on a road trip from Mississippi to Virginia. He went over to Columbia Wednesday night to root on the then #4 Ole Miss Rebels. In route to USC they listened to From Dixie with Love every hour on the hour. It was about like a 9 hour pep rally in the car (obviously the team rode separate). He stayed with some of the guys from Greek Summit, who happened to have a Gamecock of their own. His name sooted Kyle just fine. The Cock was known as Little Jerry, named after one of Kyle's favorite Seinfeld episodes. However, Little Jerry was a lot more pleasant to be around on Wednesday night than Thursday morning. Starting around 6 am Little Jerry began letting all the guys know it was gameday with his wannabe rooster crow (Little Jerry, if you read this you really need to work on that). Kyle was awoken from his deep sleep on his deflated air mattress while Jeff Reed couldn't sleep over the crows from his pool table/bed. With Thursday morning coming sooner than predicted they were able to get some Bojangles chicken biscuits. They then walked around the campus of the enemy. The South Carolina students weren't too excited to see a group of Ole Miss guys gracing their campus on a Thursday morning. After some of the best BBQ in the Carolina's (still not Memphis standards of course) they went to the stadium for some tailgating. The tailgating was fine but it was actual tailgating, as in from the back of cars. Who knew people still did that? After welcoming the then #4 team in the country to Williams-Brice stadium they headed over to the Cockabooses to take in the great Carolina tradition. What happened for the remainder of the night shall not be mentioned. After all this is supposed to be a happy post.
The next day the guys loaded up the car and went north to Charlotte. Right after arriving in Charlotte they went straight to the Carolina Panthers stadium. While waiting at the entrance gate and explaining to security why four boys from Mississippi desperately needed in the stadium on a Friday afternoon none other than John Fox drove by. John is the head coach for the Carolina Panthers. He gave a friendly head nod and smile from his Lexus but for some reason didn't want to join the guys for lunch. After leaving the stadium they went through downtown Charlotte checking out the sights and met Nick's (AKA Grizzly Adams) dad for lunch at a local favorite named Rock Bottom. From there they went to Lowe's Motor Speedway to see how the Tahoe would match up against the time's the Nascar drivers had posted around the track. For some reason they would not let them race the Silver Bullet (Tahoe). The guys took it upon themselves to go into the stadium though. They went up in the starters tower just to get the feel of it and even got to flash the emergency lights all the way around the track. For some reason that brought a little too much attention towards their direction and the self pace tour ended abruptly.
After departing Charlotte they headed to Chapel Hill for a quick tour of UNC. Roy Williams was not in his office but they did get to see all the athletic facilities including the Dean Dome (where it all began for Michael Jordan). After playing in the campus well they went to Franklin Street and ate at a Chapel Hill original. From there Kyle took them through Durham, home of Duke, and into Raleigh. They toured NC State (a little disappointing) and downtown Raleigh. After a brief stop they went through the home of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Wintson-Salem, and up to Blacksburg, VA.
After a good nights rest at the Super 8 the guys were refreshed and ready for Gameday #2. They went to Main Street in Blacksburg for some pre-game wings at PK's. After that they toured the campus and headed over by the stadium for some tailgating. They met up with some friends in Blacksburg and had a good time packing under tents trying to avoid the rain. There was good news and bad. The bad news was the rain was unavoidable. It rained over 1.5 inches the day of the game. Yes a downpour you could say. The good news though was the tickets that were going for over $200 the day before the game could now be had for only $20! Kyle was pulling for Viginia Tech simply because he thought it would be fun to jump around with their fans during Enter Sandman, the teams famous entrance to the stadium. Enter Sandman did not disappoint, but the play from the #9 Miami Hurricanes did. The boys watched from the front row as Virginia Tech dominated Miami in the typhoon. After the big win Kyle and Nick rushed the field to celebrate with the VA Tech students. They could be seen on TV and heard on ESPN radio. Yes, they were the idiots trying to get right behind the coach for his post-game interview. The rain fell harder that day than the Ole Miss top 25 ranking.
That night they pulled out of Blacksburg and headed back to Oxford. If you know Kyle you know that it was not a direct route back to Mississippi. Their first stop on the way home was in Asheville, NC. A beautiful city with even nicer hotels! Yes, home to the Mountaineer Inn (see picture below)! After an eventful night at the Inn they went by the Biltmore, the biggest house in North America. From there they decided they would head down to Atlanta, GA for the Tour Championship. It's the final event for the PGA Tour Playoffs. Why not, right?
The guys were not pleased when they pulled into GA and found out that Tour Championship tickets were $80. Obviously being a campus minister Kyle knew that was not going to work with his sweet, loving, understanding wife. They decided to walk around the main entrance talking to people about how they could get through the gates. After an unsuccessful try at the will call booth they met an nice older lady named Silvia. She was a volunteer for the tournament. Silvia and the guys hit it off from the start and she made it her personal goal to get the guys into East Lake Country Club to see Tiger Woods. After a couple of roadblocks Sivia was successful. The guys passed for military (I know even the hairy one) and were walking around the grounds of the great Bobby Jones. They followed some of the top golfers in the world around the front nine before heading over to 18. When they got to the 18th green they were discouraged to see that all the seats had been taken for the last couple of hours. Fortunately, when Tiger was making his walk from 9 to 10 the masses followed. Enough of a distraction was formed for all four guys to get in front of the grandstands and get a great seat on 18. Kyle said there were no more than 10 people between him and Phil Mickelson when he knocked down his tournament winning putt! Fitting end to a great road trip!
Now you see why I chose to stay at the KD house all weekend! Definitely a road trip fit for a bunch of guys!
