After spending the night at Knights Inn in Cookeville, Tennessee, I woke up early on Sunday morning October 6th so I could meet up with some people I know who drove from Kansas City to see their football teams play on the road. Thankfully I gained an hour once I left the Knoxville area as I went from the eastern time zone to the central time zone. I drove 180 miles to Nashville so I could meet up with
Chris Coats aka KC Superfan & his girlfriend soon to be a Mommy, Brittani Murphy in February. Despite her stomach starting to show, she decided to go with her future husband to Nashville for the weekend. They drove 550 miles each way by car. They went to see their Missouri Tigers play against Vanderbilt on Saturday night. They arrived in the area early in the afternoon. When they did, they came across a brochure for a restaurant called the
Loveless Cafe which was located in the western part of the city. Chris wrote me & he asked me if I ever heard of it. I told him no. Luckily while I was at the football game in Knoxville, I asked the young lady I was sitting next to about it because she told me she lived in Nashville. She told me it was very good. With that being said, I wrote Chris back & I told him I'll meet him there in the morning for breakfast instead of
Cracker Barrel where we were planning to go. I told him I'll meet him there around 9AM. Unfortunately it wound up taking longer than I planned because this restaurant wasn't right off the interstate which cost me some time. In addition, I needed to stop for gas along the way. Thankfully they got there early & they put their name down for a table for us. When I finally arrived around 9:30AM or so, they were there waiting for me. We still wound up waiting for a while because this place was jam packed with people. It was an interesting set up there. They had a motel, a few stores to shop in as well as the restaurant to eat in. It was Sunday morning & everybody in the area was hungry. Finally around 10AM or so, we were seated.
We ordered our food & we spoke to each other while we waited for it to arrive. When it did, I told Chris this place is like Cracker Barrel on steroids. I had a massive ham steak that came with eggs, grits, homemade biscuits with sausage gravy & pancakes. It was a royal meal in every respect. I'm so glad we all decided to go there.
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| Prince at LP Field |
After we ate, we followed each other so we could get to downtown Nashville together. We were going to
LP Field, home of the Tennessee Titans who were hosting the Kansas City Chiefs who came into the game with a 4-0 record under new head coach Andy Reid who I saw when he returned to Philadelphia on Thursday night football in week three. We wound up parking our cars on the street for free & we took a nice stroll over to the Stadium. Chris told me he went on Stub Hub that morning & he bought tickets for him & Brittani. They got seats in the second row behind the Chiefs bench in section 113. I didn't have a ticket yet. As we were walking over one of the bridges that runs over the Cumberland River that goes to the stadium, I saw a guy who had an extra ticket. He said he wanted $40 for it. I told him I'll give him $20. After he thought about it, he decided to give to me for $20. It was located in the upper level in section 313. Since it was close to game time & there was a threat of rain, I decided to stay downstairs instead. I lucked out into four empty seats in the last row of section 114 which was on the 35 yard line. I even had cover since the last two or three rows were protected by a slight overhang. I wrote Chris & I told him if he & Brittani wanted to join me for the second half they could. I also didn't want them to get wet since it did start raining in the second quarter. I was nice & dry where I was sitting. The rain came & went throughout the rest of the game.
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| Scoreboard at LP Field |
As for the game we saw, it turned out to be a good one. The Chiefs raced out to a 13-0 lead in the first half. The Titans came all the way back & they took a 17-13 lead in the third quarter. The Chiefs wound up scoring 13 more unanswered points to beat the Titans, 26-17. As a result, Chris & Brittani had a very happy ride back to Kansas City.
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| Brittani Murphy, Chris Coats & I at LP Field |
After we got back to our cars, we said our goodbyes. It was great to see them both again.
As for me, I drove to a nearby local bar/restaurant where I was meeting a guy who I know from Twitter who lives in Nashville. His name is Tyler Garret Smith. His twitter handle is
@ArenaFanatic. I strongly suggest that if you're on twitter you should give him a follow. I wound up parking in front of the restaurant he suggested. Shortly after I did, he showed up. For some unknown reason, it was closed that day. Luckily there was a
Logan's Roadhouse across the street so we went there instead. It was raining so I wound up moving the car into their parking lot. We went inside & we enjoyed dinner together. We got to talk for quite some time. I had a great meal that consisted of wood fired grilled salmon that came with broccoli & cole slaw. It was delicious.
As for Tyler, he works in management for Kroger which is a local supermarket. With that being said, his hours always change. With that being said, he couldn't join me for the football game because he was working. In his spare time, he does like to visit different sports venues on the pro & college levels. He does his own reviews when time allows after he goes somewhere. For example, I looked at his website,
Arena Fanatic & I saw his take on different college football venues. He ranked the University of Tennessee as his number one college football venue. He also had Auburn at number four. I was considering going there. I asked him for his personal opinion & he told me & I quote "Neyland Stadium takes the cake." I was leaning towards going there the whole time. He put the icing on the cake for me if you will. He's married to a young lady who went to school at the University of Tennessee. As a result, he got to see some games there in the student section he said. It was an amazing experience. I can only imagine since my experience is so memorable.
After spending some quality time with him, we said our goodbyes. I want to personally thank him for making time to meet me when I was in the area. It was one of the many highlights of that weekend.
I got back in the car & I drove Tyler to his car that was parked on the street in the neighborhood. I then proceeded to drive back to Cookeville where I spent another night at Knights Inn. Before I got there, I stopped off at
Steak N Shake which was at the exit before the hotel. I went inside & I ordered a vanilla shake to go for dessert.
Stay tuned for another special post that I'm going to do about that Monday night In Atlanta where I saw some football & I met another fellow roadtripper.
Thank you for reading & following along.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
