South Bend Road Trip: Day 4 - Nashville!

Still high on our incredible win the day before, we all woke up Sunday morning with an excitement in our hearts, ready to get back on the road to go to Tennessee. The majority of the day was uneventful, consumed mostly by driving and "you had to be there" moments, but you all will be happy to know that everywhere we went we held up the horns and yelled "Go Bulls" at every opportunity we had. Because of the lack of significant events due to the 8 hours we spent in the car, I'm not going to be keeping a timeline. I'll just recap the fun parts to make you guys super jealous.

When we first got on the road, we had to make one stop before we went anywhere. We drove about 5 miles north to the Michigan border and claimed their state as Bulls Country. After putting that sticker on there, it was on to Tennessee! It was the drive south that made us finally realize an ultimate truth: Indiana sucks. No phone service, no buildings, no gas stations, nothing.

We crossed the southern border into Kentucky, where we were greeted with Louisville licence plates and bumper stickers. Naturally, we heckled them until we left the state. We crossed into Tennessee to fill the tank, then drove the last 40 minutes to Nashville.

Once we checked into the hotel in downtown Nashville, we all took a minute to sit down on the beds and relax. It was just nice to be sitting on something cushioned that wasn't in a vehicle. It was about 8:00 Central Time when we got moving, and we were all starving. We walked a few blocks down to a barbecue restaurant where we sat down and ate a real meal for the first time in days. The barbecue sauce in Tennessee is thick as if it were made with molasses instead of brown sugar, and it was awesome.

But this is Nashville, right? Let's hear some music! Even on a Sunday night there wasn't a place all over town that didn't have a live band or unusually good karaoke singers. We made our first stop at the piano bar down the street, where we walked into a battle between the two pianists playing the fight songs of Michigan and Ohio State. Of course, they also threw in a bit of Rocky Top to please the home crowd.

After hearing piano renditions of some of our favorite songs, we hopped around some of the other bars, eventually planting ourselves in a bar where one of our friends immediately fell in love with the singer of the band. When the band was getting ready to play their last song, he professed his love to her, only to get a bit of tease-y flirting in return. With our high-on-love friend, we went across the street to some bar/club that was pretty empty. After discovering that I am absolutely lethal at flip-cup, we decided that it was time to head over to another place. There was just one problem: we were at the end of the road. After a bit of deliberation, we decided to find our way back to the piano bar where we started. We put $25 in the players' jar to give a shout out to the "South Florida Bulls, who kicked Notre Dame's ass Saturday!" Our announcement was met with cheers from the whole bar, who, as stated before, were all Michigan and Ohio State fans, ecstatic to see the Irish lose any time. We spend the rest of our time in the bar and on the street getting complimented on our big win and how happy it made everyone to see Notre Dame lose.

We made our way back into the hotel at about 2:30, and after watching a few friends play-wrestling, which turned into play-fighting, which quickly turned into real-fighting, we decided to call it a night at about 3:15. The greatest road trip known to man was almost over. And while we were all sad to see the best weekend ever come to an end, we were all excited to go home and lay in our own beds for once.