Hot-lanta (land of the birds)

Hey deprived readers. Sorry that it’s been a few days since you’ve heard from us. We were just having so much fun in Atlanta that I didn’t think to sit down and write. We've also been without internet access for a few days, so I have two posts to share today. Here’s a quick rundown of how things went while we were in Atlanta… 

We had an 8ish hour drive from Cincinnati on Wednesday. It was actually a pretty quick and easy drive, mostly because we are now driving Sam’s sister Kelley’s car. It’s a smaller car than Sam’s, but it’s a Toyota with about 30,000 less miles (at least until we get a hold of it), and I feel much safer taking it cross-country. The only problem so far is that it drains/eats oil, and we have to continually fill it up. This is familiar territory for me…anyone remember White Lightening??? Hopefully it’s still running somewhere. Anyyyyways, so we get into Atlanta sometime between 9 and 10pm, and our good friend Jeremy (aka Jerry) greets us with some beers. We met Jerry at OU and have been close friends with him for about four years now. We also hung out with Brian Solomon, his girlfriend Kim, Jerry’s friend Sean (aka the Irishman with a British accent – from Chicago?), another OU friend Kyle, and three Brazilian ladies who cook a mean desert. We drank a bit, ate some burgers and hot dogs, and chilled around Jerry’s apartment complex for the night. 

Day two in Atlanta was one of the best so far on the trip. I took MARTA (Atlanta’s public trans) downtown and met Jerry for lunch at a kick ass Deli called Reuben’s. Then he gave us an all-access tour of the Georgia Dome. For those of you who know Jerry, he’s incredibly modest about his job, but he is the man around the Dome. He basically runs shit and took us into every single part of the dome and introduced us to I think everyone in the entire place. My favorite part was seeing the Falcons’ locker room and sitting in Michael Vick’s old locker. After the Dome, Jerry drove us around ATL a bit and we saw some cool neighborhoods and Georgia Tech’s campus. We got back to Jerry’s apartment and started killing some beers before the Braves game. Jim (aka Papa Bear, aka Crichton, aka Jimbo) joined us poolside for some beers and then came to the game with us. The game was one of the more exciting ones we’ve seen so far, and I even cheered for the Braves. Except I couldn’t bring myself to do the Tomahawk Chop. I’m still bitter about the ‘95 World Series. So anyways, we continue to drink at the game, and afterwards Jerry, Sean, Jim, Sam, and I all went to a bar called Moondogs. Just to paint a picture, it’s in a row of three bars that the locals refer to as “The Dirty Triangle.” Needless to say it was our kind of place. They had beer pong tables set up in the bar and we went through countless Miller Lite pitchers (thanks to the many dome calls we performed in Dr. Zeus’ honor) before getting drunk enough to dance to a cover band playing mostly 90s music and Jerry’s personal favorite…Save tonight, and fight the break of dawn. Great night. 

Day three was characterized by just straight bummin’ around. We sat by Jerry’s pool for at least seven or eight hours during the day, drank a little (and I do mean just a little because I felt like crap), and then decided to stay in, lay low, and grill out again. It was Jerry, Sean, Kyle, Kyle’s sister, Sam, and me. We made some burgers and had some beers outside, telling each other stories from college and what not. This night also marked the return of Yuengling to our lives. I’m seriously starting to get pissed that everyone but Ohio sells it. So it was a relaxing day and night on our last one in Atlanta. We had an incredible time and wish we could have stayed longer! THANK YOU SO MUCH JERRY AND FRIENDS FOR SHOWING US A GREAT TIME. ATLANTA HAS BEEN ONE OF MY FAVORITE PLACES SO FAR (AND I THINK SAM’S FAVORITE BECAUSE SHE KEEPS TALKING ABOUT MOVING THERE)! IT WAS GREAT TO SEE YOU JERRY AND I HOPE WE’LL BE ABLE TO VISIT AGAIN SOMETIME IN THE NEAR FUTURE! THANK YOU! 

We’re in Miami Beach right now. I won’t go into details about our travel day getting here in this blog. Just stay tuned for Miami stories in the next one. Adios! 

Matt