I have officially crossed over to the dark side. The side where no matter how much you love your favorite college football team, you have come face to face with the reality that nothing is ever perfect. They can lose, even when you're there. Knowing what it's like to sit in a crowd of 100,000 or more people and feel the pulse of disappointment in the air is slightly defeating. I guess with our record this year, it was bound to happen. But to Wyoming? Oh dear.None the less, there are always bright sides to these sorts of things. As much as Fulmer has given to this team and to his university over the year, it is possible that new leadership might bring some change we Vols fans can believe in. (Feels like I've heard that slogan somewhere...)
And our non-actual game related festivities yesterday were great, so all-in-all, it wasn't a bad day at all! There's nothing like a drive east on I-40 in the fall or the company of really great people. We had lunch on the Strip in Knoxville at Buffalo Wild Wings, which made Cliff very happy because in his words the wings "were perfect!" and me because they had Cherry Coke on "tap". Then the game itself commenced and despite losing, a few rounds of "Rocky Top" and at least one touchdown were energizing in their own ways. Oh! And there was a National Anthem fly-over by two Navy jets from the Naval Air Base in my hometown - Oceana! After the game we took our time browsing in the bookstore, nabbed a few good buys, and then made our way to the car that would take us to Oak Ridge our final destination before heading home: Big Ed's Pizza.
So here's the disclaimer: Big Ed's isn't the best pizza I've ever had. It's good. No, it's really good. But it's not the best. In some respects, for me, it rivals the "Pizza Oven" in Rockville, MD. There's just something about this hole in the wall in Oak Ridge that keeps people coming from up to 30 minutes away just to eat pizza. Nothing else on the menu, food-wise at least. They make their own dough, offer the standard toppings, and do their dough-throwing and pizza making behind a plex-glass wall so you can see it all happen. A pitcher of soda is $3 and a one-topping medium-sized pizza is a whopping $10 and that means for cheap eats, good pizza, and fun ambiance. The place was packed, lots of big parties, and not an unhappy face in the crowd. It's a good ways, maybe 15-20 minutes, off I-40 but definitely worth making a pit-stop for if you're ever in the area. I know we'll be building it into our route whenever we can!
I went into a bit of a food-coma on the way home, but I'm still not complaining. We talked and laughed and shared most of the way home, so much so that I can barely remember the dark passing scenery all the way back.
And those are moments when I'm glad I don't get hung up on something like a lost game... or a losing season, at that.
