Travel Blog

We had Tuesday off, and we wanted to watch the Steelers play on Monday night. We don't get any TV at the RV park, so Phil called around to a few local establishments to see if anyone would have the game on. He found a sports bar that said they would indeed be showing the game. We duded up in our Steelers finest and headed out.

Now, when I think "sports bar," my mind goes to places like Champs and Damon's in State College, PA. You know, lots of TVs, lots of football fans and lots of food and beer. We got to the place here, and it looked HUGE! There were so many cars in the parking lot that it looked like a big concert or something was going on. Truth be told, I was a bit overwhelmed. This place was way bigger than I expected. Way bigger than Champs or Damon's. We headed for the door, but what we thought was the sports bar was actually  a bowling alley. Ok. That's cool. That explains a lot of the cars. Then we see a sign for the bar that points us directs us around the corner. Turns out our "sports bar" was just a tiny, little corner of that huge building. I mean small. I'm talking bottle shop in State College small.

We walk in the door and it was like every stranger-walking-into-a-small-town-bar scene you've ever seen in the movies, complete with the juke box music coming to a record-scratching halt, every conversation stopping in mid-sentence and every set of eyes turning towards us. Gulp. As in the movies, after we were appraised, there was that slow wind up back to normal noise levels, even though I think our Steelers gear earned us a few snide comments.

Phil and I did our own appraisal. Nearly all the tables in the place were in a classroom-style "L" around three pool tables. Seems like Monday night in Coffeyville is pool tournament night. To be fair, the two TVs the place had were tuned to the Monday night football game, even though no one was watching it. Phil and headed to the least crowded part of the bar nearest to one of the TVs and slip-sidled into our stools. The bartender was calling everyone else by name and handing them their usuals (yeah, it was that kind of place), but she was very friendly to us and we started to feel better after our first beers. The focus stayed on the pool tables, so we got to watch the first half of the game in relative peace, even though a few others at the bar who were interested at all were, of course, Broncos fans. But it was nice to watch the game, and we ate some food off the limited menu, and the cook reminded me of my mom, even though she had a Broncos apron on when she came out to see how we were doing. (Yeah, it was that kind of place too, and that's nice, don't you think?) In fact, the place reminded me of the American Legion and Rod and Gun Club from back home in Carrolltown, PA. It's kind of nice to find places like that when you're traveling, every now and again.