Gaither Concert - Leaving There

This is the concluding article of the three
events (getting there, being there, and leaving there) associated with the Gaither Concert in Tupelo, on February 9, 2008.

At ten-fifteen p.m. my thoughts of the three of us going out to dinner at a nice restaurant in Tupelo had long vanished, and my thoughts were more occupied with finding a restaurant open at ten-thirty. We had a late afternoon sweet snack before going to the Gaither concert, and we planned to eat following the concert. But first, Barbara and I had to get Miss Virginia down the steep steps of the mezzanine seating, down two flights of stairs, and select a pick up point as close to the arena as possible.

Church busses were lined up alongside the building for quite a distance in spots that would be perfect for me to utilize if only I could get my car through the maze of vehicles whose movements to exit the parking lots reminded me of fire ants spilling out of their mound in search of whatever or whomever might have disturbed it. Vehicles were moving in most every direction away from the arena.

Walking to my car, I wondered how I’d ever get back to where I needed to pick up Barbara and Miss Virginia. It actually took less time than I had imagined as most everyone was jockeying for an exit line, and I was among the few trying to get closer to the arena. I made a few aggressive maneuvers, slipping across empty parking spaces and through gaps of vehicles in exit lanes and was soon near where I’d left Barbara and Miss Virginia. I gave up on them spotting me, so I got out of the car and was half-way to an entrance/exit when they finally saw me.

Both side streets that parallel the arena were packed with vehicles as was every parking exit feeding into one of the side streets. However, almost nobody was using a major exit that passed through the parking area of the Hilton Garden Inn and onto West Main. I figure I saved us a good ten or fifteen minutes by taking the less traveled route.

"Let’s find a restaurant," I gleefully stated once we were out of the parking lot, "I’ve got a handicap-dangler on my rearview mirror, and I’m anxious to park in a handicapped parking space."

"I-Hop is probably open," someone suggested, and given the limited choices of twenty-four hour restaurants, it was fine with me. Continue reading>>