Braves WIN!

Team Nissan (an Xterra-van of two vehicles and ten people) had a mission. A two hour trip for a three hour game in a city that prides itself as much on being a part of the New South as it does it ability to drive really fast and go nowhere. Team Nissan was headlong into a trip to see the Braves vs. the Red Sox. It left five hours before the game. That would allow for a couple of hours of tailgating before the first pitch.

Three hours after Team Nissan’s departure, the ten trippers weren’t halfway to the stadium. The Oracles of the Interstate (also known as OTR truck drivers) delivered the dire news. The Georgia DOT had decided to cut four lanes of traffic into one for about 30 miles outside the city. The back-up was four hours long. Team Nissan made a decision to use the best part of the Georgia higheway system…the median. The U-turn was the best decision of the day.

Thirty minutes later Team Nissan settled down in an Athens, GA sports bar. The Braves won. And so did Team Nissan.

Sticking with the age old axiom (what happens in a college town stays in a college town), suffice it to say Team Nissan’s score card looked a little like this:

Sports bar tab: $150 (not including freebies from a well-tipped waitstaff of one)

Games of pool: Two

Tattoos: One

Piercings: One

Ticket price of one of our favorite bands that coincidentally happened to be playing in Athens that night: $5

Phone calls to far away friend who couldn’t make the trip: Um…six…maybe seven.

Return time to Greenville (when we had initially planned on being back to town at midnight): 4AM

A night that made me feel like a college kid again: Priceless.

Brad Willis

Brad Willis is a writer based in Greenville, South Carolina. Willis spent a decade as an award-winning broadcast journalist. He has worked as a freelance writer, columnist, and professional blogger since 2005. He has also served as a commentator and guest on a wide variety of television, radio, and internet shows.

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