The Boys Only Blog

There was nothing little about our trip to the Little Dooey in Starkville, where Glenn, Mr. O, Peter and I met up with about 20 former counselors to consume phenomenal amounts of Barbeque. The next day we interviewed around 30 guys from State, which I think is some kind of record.  Brian Sorgenfrei, the RUF minister at State also stopped by to say hello (Brian is an Alpine vet). It was a big time, and although it pains me to say it, I have to put Starkville up there in my top 3 cities of the Golden Triangle.

Of course, I’m not making any trips to Mississippi without some solid time in Oxford. Peter and I got to grab dinner at The Pizza Den with about 20 guys from Ole Miss, and then made our way over to the RUF wednesday night service, where Alpine alum Les Newsom preached. It was a wonderful time, and it gave us a chance to catch up with a few more friends. We didn’t interview in Oxford this time, but we’ll be back the week after Thanksgiving to interview.

The following week we went to Auburn, where we had a nice dinner at the Mellow Mushroom with former staff members George Hamm, Austin Terrell, Drew Allison, Connor Cheshire and Matt McDonald. Unfortunately, Glenn missed the Mellow Mushroom, his favorite restaurant ever on this entire planet. We interviewed some really cool guys at Auburn in the lobby of the Auburn Hotel and Conference center, which was easily the most swanky interview setting I’ve ever experienced.

After the Auburn interviews wrapped up, we headed to Athens, Georgia. Andrew Terrell, Harrison Rogers, Kelsey Cox, Doug Chapin, Jonathan Franklin, and Nathan Bosshardt, met us for dinner (Mark Ellis came for dessert). We had an excellent dinner, and laughed pretty much the whole time. We went to their RUF, which included a short film that got me pumped up about Christmas, and then a great worship service. After a day of interviews in Walker’s coffee shop, Peter and I headed back to Mentone for some much needed rest.

It’s finally here, the thing I’ve looked forward to all year. The off-season crew is traveling to college campuses, catching up with old friends and making some new ones along the way. We’ve been to Knoxville and Nashville so far, interviewing college guys in our search for this summer’s staff.

Somehow, Peter and I found the strength to enjoy Knoxville, despite the sickening sea of orange that surrounded us (sorry, it’s just hard for us Alabama fans to take). Actually it was very fun. We spent the day interviewing guys in the student union, then got a chance to take some old friends out to dinner at Litton’s in Knoxville. Weston Duke, Carter McCall, Steven Thompson, Evan Warner, Garrett Smith, Taylor Stewart, Thomas Hendrix and Philip Gilman all came by to see us at dinner. Steven strongly recommended the pimento cheese “Thunder Burger” to me, but it was only after the monstrous hulk of a sandwich came out that he mentioned he had never tried it. Thank you, Steven.

After, Litton’s we headed over to RUF, where we got to hear a riveting sermon and meet up with even more old friends. Evan, Steven and Carter agreed to pose for a picture with me, which Carter seemed pretty excited about:

From Knoxville we journeyed over to Nashville, to meet some guys from Vanderbilt. What a gorgeous drive. The only thing more beautiful than the changing leaves was this beauty standing proudly by the highway:

Next time I’m voting for that instead of the Hampton Inn.

Nashville was awesome. We ran into Carver Morgan at lunch, then started up with a few interviews that afternoon. We got to see Carver again that night, along with Stephen Maroda and Margaret Pless (my sister). The three of them joined Peter, Glenn and me for dinner at Panera Bread before we went to Vandy’s RUF service.

Traveling around and seeing friends is certainly my favorite part of this job, and the people we got to see in Knoxville and Nashville made the trips worthwhile. Our next stop is Starkville, MS on Tuesday, where we’re meeting up with our Bulldog friends for some Barbecue at The Little Dooey. Wednesday we’ll drive over to Oxford and meet our friends there for a hot meal at the Pizza Den. Any former staff members in the area are welcome to join us. We’d love to see you!