When I was a young Skytress I flew many trips with my Skytress friend, Kathryn. Skytress Kathryn was from Knoxville, Tennessee. I loved listening to Kathryn tell stories about growing up in Knoxville. I particularly loved when she talked about football Saturdays. Her family would take their boat to the University of Tennessee football games. They would tailgate on the Tennessee River with the other fans who took their boats to the game….and party from boat to boat until it was time to go to the game. I was fascinated. I went to the University of Kansas. We couldn’t take a boat to the football games. Heck. I even lived across the street from the Kansas football stadium. I don’t believe I ever saw anyone outside the stadium tailgating before the game. Then again, these were the very lean years for Kansas football. We only went to the games for something to do until basketball season started. “Wave the wheat” my Jayhawk friends! Well, I might not have taken a boat to Neyland Stadium in Tennessee a few weeks ago. But, I still manage to get inside. I’ll admit. I didn’t “wave the wheat” when I got inside the stadium. No siree. One doesn’t wave the wheat inside Neyland Stadium. Nope. One sings, “Good Old Rocky Top” with your Skytress crew. And you take pictures…. as proof you simply walked through an open construction doorway to get inside of the stadium to take them.

For years, when our airline crews had a layover in Knoxville we would walk to the hotel for our layover. The hotel was a couple hundred feet from the airport. It didn’t matter if we had a long or short Knoxville layover either. We would drag our bags down the sidewalk to the hotel. As far as I knew, the University of Tennessee was a million miles away….yet, still miraculously in Knoxville. So, when Skytress Cara texted me the morning of our 30- hour Knoxville layover, asking me if I would like to walk to the University, my response was, “Is it far? I hadn’t planned on walking a million miles on my layover. Skytress Cara texted me that it was less than a mile walk. I texted her back , “Meet you in the lobby in a few minutes.”

My original plan for my layover was to sleep in late then have a leisurely day walking around Knoxville. I planned to cap the day off by ordering dinner from Tupelo Honey. I’ll admit. I had been thinking about my layover plans for days. You may remember Ron passed away in Knoxville. It took me an abhorrent amount of time to be mentally ready to layover there again. Much to my amazement, when I finally mustered up the courage to layover in Knoxville, I had a perfectly lovely 30-hour layover. I’ll admit. I felt Ron’s love the entire time I was there. Yes indeed. I looked forward to spending this layover by myself enveloped again in Ron’s love. Curiously, I felt in my heart Ron was encouraging me to go hang out with my crew. I had a sneaky suspicion Ron knew I was going to have a splendid layover with them. I pictured Ron in Heaven smiling when the three of us exited the hotel. Skytress Cara, Skytress Molly and I were gobsmacked by the glorious weather. The weather was unlike the bitter cold weather the country had experienced from coast to coast a few days prior. Yessiree. It was warm and sunny…..and utterly refreshing. The slightly nippy temperatures Knoxville had experienced in the morning were long gone by the time we headed out on our adventure.

Skytress Cara was our designated tour guide for our adventure. She had visited the University of Tennessee during the peak of Covid. Skytress Cara and her family came to watch Texas A & M play the Volunteers. Skytress Cara lives in Austin. She and her family eat, drink and breathe everything Aggies. Having to social distance while at the football game didn’t deter them from coming to Tennessee to root on their Aggies. No siree. However, it had been a moment since Skytress Cara had been to the campus. Thus, it took her a moment to get her bearings straight. We knew we were headed in the right direction when we saw multiple campus parking lot signs. I’ll admit. We did let out a collective groan when we saw the steep hill we had to walk up to get to the main campus. But when we got to the top of the good old rocky top hill, we let out a collective gasp. It was heart stopping beautiful! Egads. I would have loved to have gone to school here. (Sorry my Kansas Jayhawk wheat waving friends). I always say Tennessee is one of the most beautiful states in America. The University of Tennessee was just another exclamation point to this statement.

Skytress Cara, Skytress Molly and I were by far the oldest people walking the campus. I’m certain most students believed we were three lost elderly ladies. And they wouldn’t have been too far off in their assumptions. Ahh, but, there are many advantages to being an older person on a young person’s campus. Yes indeed. We unabashedly used our mature age as an advantage a few minutes later. We decided to walk over to Neyland Stadium. There was a lot of construction work going on around the stadium. Luckily for us, the construction work that day was centered on the stadium’s exterior facing the Tennessee River. This bode well for us. Without hesitation we walked inside the stadium through an open construction gate on the main campus side of the stadium. Yessiree. We boldly walked in and looked around the stadium like we belonged there. No questions asked. I’m sure anyone that saw us thought we were just college administrators checking things out. However, our concocted back story was that we were with ESPN scouting a story on the Volunteer football team. Thankfully, we didn’t need a back story. Instead, we stood in the stadium singing, “Good Old Rocky Top” while we took pictures. When we left the stadium I told Skytress Cara and Skytress Molly about my neighbor who walked into the Super Bowl at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta when the Rams were playing. Yessiree. My neighbor saw several people easily walk through a stadium door after the game started. So, she and her cousin decided they would walk through the same door. No one stopped them. They blissfully walked around the stadium and cheered our St. Louis Rams on to victory. Even though there wasn’t an actual football game being played in Neyland Stadium when we walked in, we still felt as victorious. However, our victory was short lived. We eventually had to walk the gazillion steps back up to the main campus area from the Tennessee River side. However, before we did, I looked over at the Tennessee River and imagined all the boats tailgating before a UT football game. In my head it looked like an absolutely good old rocky top time.

Since there was very little any middle-aged person could possibly do on campus, we decided we would head back to downtown Knoxville. Yessiree. The three of us wanted to shop and have a late lunch. After all….We are Skytresses! As you should all know by now….eating and shopping are two favorite pastimes for airline people. Thankfully, we were unanimous in our decision to go to Tupelo Honey to eat. My meal was so delicious I actually tried to replicate it when I got home. We happily shopped before and after lunch. After all….We are Skytresses! We quickly discovered every shop had one thing in common. Tennessee orange! Good Old Rocky Top!. The three of us had never seen so much orange clothing or accessories in our lives. The crazier the orange outfits and accessories were, the more we liked them. In my head, I imagined Ron chuckling in Heaven at all the orange. This thought made me chuckle, too. Good golly. Ron was right. I was having a splendid time hanging out with Skytress Cara and Skytress Molly.

I was happily exhausted when I returned to my hotel room. It was the perfect layover to have before I started my vacation. I even told this to Ron after I said my bedtime prayers. I could hear Ron in Heaven saying, “Yepper. It was a great day wasn’t it, “I”?”. The next morning when we drove to the airport I thought a lot about Ron. I thanked God for allowing me to feel Ron’s love everywhere I went on my layover. It truly was a Heavenly gift that I didn’t take for granted.

A short time later I was having more conversations with God and Ron. Egads. We had a dreaded maintenance issue. Of course, we were supposed to finish our trip at a decent time in Atlanta. All of us, except for our Skytress In-Charge, Jazmin, were trying to catch early flights home. Skytress Jazmin was working her first trip since finding out she was pregnant. She spent the entire layover trying to catch up on sleep. She was looking forward to getting home early to get more rest. The maintenance issue was putting us all in a pickle. We felt awful for our passengers trying to catch connecting flights in Atlanta. So, we were in the aisles answering their questions and looking up flight information for them as best we could. While we were busy helping our passengers, God gave Ron and my angels in Reroute Heaven the go ahead to work their reroute magic. Boy did they! A few minutes later my phone rang. It was our airline calling with a crew notification. Our Cleveland turn had been removed from our rotation. We would be released to go home when we landed in Atlanta. We all were ecstatic. Skytress Jazmin would be back home resting in no time. Skytress Cara, Skytress Molly and I would be able to catch even earlier flights home. I don’t know about the other ladies. But, all the way home I was singing, “Good Old Rocky Top”. I knew Ron and my angels in Reroute Heaven were singing along with me, too. Heck. I even pictured them enthusiastically “waving the wheat” at their Heavenly reroute magic. I know I was!