Bottom line, I am back from Nashville. My truck is not.

Back to football in a bit but I feel like I have a story I need to share. Last spring our immediate family - including my wife Huskerland Penni, daughter Huskerland Jessie, and son Huskerland Matthew - made plans to visit Nashville for Thanksgiving weekend. Dating back to last February when I started work on our Huskerland Prep Report preseason football magazine it had basically been a seven-days-a-week sort of grind so I was looking forward to a couple of days away from the office.

We planned to leave after last Tuesday’s Class A final - you can do that sort of thing when you have young drivers at your disposal - but that was before last week’s approaching winter storm. Tuesday was going to be a bad weather day that got worse as the day wore on so I had to make one of the tougher decisions of my professional career:

I baled on the Class C-2 and Class A state football finals.

I had missed the second half of the Omaha Gross win over Norris in the 2012 Class B final because we were leaving for another family vaca - a close family friend was getting married in Cancun (thank you, close family friend) - providing all of us our one opportunity to travel outside the contiguous 48. I also missed championship Saturday in 2003 because I wanted to attend the installation of my oldest sister, Huskerland Becky, as state Eagles Auxiliary president, a ceremony which was held at Kearney.

Missing Tuesday’s last two games was a killer for me but I am glad we left when we did because even with the early departure it was a rocky ride to Nashville. I will leave out many of the juicy details but what you need to know is we left in a building blizzard, traveled through torrential rains in Illinois, including travel through a tornado warning, and arrived in Nashville at 4 a.m.

The last time I went to bed at 4 a.m. was for an event which will not be fully explained here, of course, but we didn’t wind up on Live PD for whatever that’s worth.

As we approached Nashville in those early morning hours of Wednesday morning our pick-up truck was running rough, and it was getting worse. By Saturday, and another couple hundred miles of sight seeing, it was almost undriveable and I realized we’d need to take it to a dealership to have it inspected. The news was not good.

In between that 4 a.m. arrival and my Saturday morning visit to the auto dealership we managed to sneak in a trip to the Hermitage, the home of U.S. president and war hero Andrew Jackson, as well as visiting Opryland, hitting some nice places to eat and checking in on some of the live music in town. It was basically and awesome experience. (Less the Huskers dismal late-game performance against Iowa, but I digress.)

Saturday morning I took my pick-up to the dealership where I was treated very nicely, as nicely as you can be while being told some of the repair parts were back-ordered. As in, it will be about a week before we can fix your truck.

While I was at the dealership my family was touring the Mother Church, the Ryman Auditorium, without me. We hooked up after they were finished and spent the afternoon down on Broadway, where I settled in at a place called Layla’s. I walked into the joint mainly because I saw chicken wire and if there is one thing I have learned in all my years it is this - make sure you never miss a country and western, um, club where they string chicken wire. Never.

Once I got my bearings I realized I had a seat at a table in front and the band consisted of a mandolin, banjo, bass, rhythm guitar and a drums. A classic bluegrass set and the band was pretty awesome. Even knew some Buck Owens, and while I was pulling for I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail they played Love’s Gonna Live Here, so regardless you knew you were into something good.

Saturday night Huskerland Penni and I attended the Grand Old Opry at the Ryman, truly a fabulous highlight to our trip, especially because Vince Gill hosted the final hour. Vince Gill, Jeanie Seely, Louise Mandrell, Steve Earle...it was an awesome lineup.

Back to my pick-up truck. We rented a van for the drive home and after 16 hours on the road - don’t ask - we got back to Central City by about 12:30 a.m. Monday. I’ve been answering emails and checking in with staff before writing this tale of woe. It’s back to the grind.

Except I heard from the dealership first thing this morning where they found another needed repair to my pickup. Sent me pictures of two parts which had been broken then glued together; they’d given out and that led to much of our other troubles. Awesome.

As for retrieving my truck they tell me the repairs should be made by Friday. If that holds I will fly down on Friday and pick up the pickup. Then drive home. Again.

Still digging out from all that’s on my desk but it is good to be back in Huskerland, preparing for the big finish to football season. I appreciate y’all (oh no, my first post-Tennessee y’all) and your patience as we have been a way for a few days. We will be up and running full speed tomorrow, which is more than I can say for my pickup truck.

There is a country and western song in there somewhere, wouldn’t you agree?