Episode 02 - Initial Link - 8-23-2013

Welcome back, dear readers!  Last episode left off with my arrival in Knoxville, TN, so let's jump right into it!

So, I was picked up at the Knoxville station by my business partner Eddie, and we drove through Tennessee to get to Gatlinburg.  The scenery out East is pretty cool, and reminds me of the parts of Wisconsin with the timberline ridges.  Knoxville was very quaint, with a kind of uniformed comfort to the buildings.  As we approached Gatlinburg, we hit a nightmare of massive tourist attractions spread out on a single highway.  Smokey Mountain something or other, I dunno.  Apparently the traffic is usually atrocious, but fate has been on my side for a little bit here, so we actually had pretty clear sailing into the main part of town.

Gamers Link Gatlinburg is located in a small mall called the Riverbend Mall.  At first, it doesn’t seem like much, but the view from the back stairs is majestic and peaceful.  I am not used to clean mountain air, (and apparently most people don’t know that Illinois is a sweltering swamp for half a year,) but holy sweat balls, I barely cleaned myself for a week, and I never really felt dirty.  The mountainous angles are killer on my flatland calves though.  It’s very strange to feel like you are on completely flat ground, but your shopping carts roll away like crazy if you let them go.

Anyways, the store is run by Eddie’s Aunt Shelly, and his little cousin who also happens to be named Cassidy.  Shelly’s female aesthetic permeates the entire store, and it really helps for the tourist-y location.  You see, most game stores are run by dudes, nerdy ones at that, so they are almost never done with a touch that will attract women.  This may seem like it makes sense for a gaming store, because women don’t play games on nearly the scale dudes do, but this is self defeating, really.  The thing about women – they tend to have men.  I witnessed it time and time over – instead of the woman getting completely intimidated by old, fading Magic paraphernalia, they came in to browse the selection of fairy stuff and jewelry, while dudes perused the game store supplies. 

It is a great store in a great location, so get on out there and play a few games!

The first night down in TN was really the first time I’ve been away from my family since Milo was born, and he was 2½ at the time.  It was very liberating to be down there, especially because I was hanging with my homie Eddie.  Shelly lives up the mountain (and when I say up the mountain, I mean up the dang mountain.  Get climbing!), in a nice little cottage that is usually rented out to rich pricks who want to go skiing on Ol’ Smokey.  There was a hot tub that saw pretty constant use, and it was definitely an easy way to wake up.

Oh, the other thing I should probably explain – I was drunk for 90% of the time I was there.  Don’t get me wrong, though, because I am rarely a drinker.  I usually have a bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label last me about six months, so that tells you how frequently I imbibe ‘el agua estupido’.  Eddie, on the other hand, is part of the cool kids crowd a bit, so he drinks like most people do.

Whether it was beers or some kickass Bloodies, man I was hammered pretty good.  That was the best part about the Riverbend Mall, really – I was walking around with mixed drinks like it was no big deal.  I was on vacation, so I was going to have a good time.  This one chick who owned a cigar shop in the mall even threw a mixer with some sangria, and something else I didn’t bother drinking, and since I was around the next day after, I finished off the punch bowls all day long. 

I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here, but I felt it was important to explain how having a few sips was par for the course.  Over the next few entries, I’ll explore TN a lot more.  The trip was not only an excellent time, but it got Eddie and I to the point where we knew we could open a store in Chicago. 

I took a lot of pictures and videos that were to go into this segment of the blog, but of course, my "high tech" phone deleted them without warning.  Sorry.