Friday night we had a TOUGH loss- one of those where your gut feels like its been kicked in and you would love someone just to put you out of your misery.
Right after that my wife and 1 of my daughters packed a big suburban and headed toward Durham, NC with a friend and his son. 5 weary travelers, pulling out about midnight and wanting to get just east of Knoxville. I was about as miserable as a man can be- so tired that I actually passed out for about 2 hours.
We found our hotel room for the night and grabbed a few hours and headed out again, hoping to catch a pre-game tailgate of the Duke-Alabama game and a 3:30 EDT kick-off.
We made the tailgate right at the end, but I still had a chance to get a good hamburger- and the healing had begun. It was a beautiful Saturday on beautiful campus. Because I had been to Princeton a few years earlier, I immediately sensed the similarity.
It was fun traveling with Stewart and Andrew Shoffner- and it was fun to see Stewart's son, Robert, run out of the Duke tunnel wearing #66. That had to be great for them!
It was also good to see Coach Cut. My game Friday and the Alabama game on Saturday was a real life illustration of the old coaching cliche- "it ain't about x's and o's- it's about Jimmys and Joes". Alabama has some huge and fast 'Jimmys and Joes'- it was the first time to see them live with the championship personnel they have and all I can say is wow.
I wanted to say that I was very pleased with the Duke fans- a lot of appreciation for their team and their coach. It was refreshing.
I was so thankful to see Karen Cutcliffe after the game and did get to see Coach Cut just long enough to hug his neck and commiserate a little.
We had a lovely dinner at the Club afterward and the bed felt like heaven.
Sunday- we visited the campus- got to hear the end of the Sunday service at the majestic chapel- and had a fun, story telling- over 500 mile ride back to Nashville where I lay my head down at 10:35 PM.
The weekend had been a healing getaway... I was ready to get rolling again.
I think next time I will fly- but it was a wonderful time by all.
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