Circa 1987

I recently went to a friend's wedding and was reminded of a road trip my buddies and I had taken after our freshman year in college. I went to the University of Tennessee which was across the state in Knoxville and my friends stayed home and went to Memphis State. A couple of weeks before we were to return to college to start our sophomore year, the guys pulled up in front of my house in Eddie's (in the back on the right) little Toyota pick-up. Danny (in the front on the right) jumps out of the back as informs me "We are going to New Orleans for the weekend, grab your crap and saddle up!" I wanted to know how we were going to get there and was quickly informed that Eddie was driving and already had a hotel room. The plan was for two to ride in the front and two to ride in the back and take turns swapping out. The rest of us had perfectly good cars with perfectly good back seats. I really don't recall why riding seven hours in the back of a truck seemed like a good idea, but that was the plan. This picture was taken after seven hours of driving. That's me on the left in the back. If I look happy, it's because I was. The bastards up front refused to swap out with the unlucky stiffs in the back. So after a full day of riding in the back of a truck on a major interstate, I was thrilled to be alive and there was no place I would have rather been at that moment than at Pat O'Brian's drinking my first hurricane.