Commentary by Danielle Pelkey

The North Jefferson News



I love to support community happenings. I am also a big fan of all things local.

That’s one of the reasons that I made it a point to go to the Warrior Wildfire’s first exhibition game held in Chattanooga last weekend. The other reason I went is because my husband is the head coach of the team. So, there were no questions as to where the Pelkeys would be on this particular day.

After we made it through the traffic, we all arrived safely at the field. We made it just in time for the guys to change and get on the field.

Since the team we were playing — the Chattanooga Steam — were way out of our league, we didn’t really expect to have a very good time. The guestimations were that our team was going to get blown out of the water, especially since this team had already won their first four games of their regular season.

Needless to say, we couldn’t hold down our excitement when we held them on their first drive and then kicked a field goal on our first possession to get the first points on the board. The Wildfire kept the lead until the fourth quarter. When I went to get some hot chocolate, the good luck charm left the stadium. When I got back to my seat, we were trailing by five and that’s how the game ended.

We had no regrets though. The guys looked great on the field and we got really pumped up for the upcoming season.

The game ended around 10:30 p.m. and we were ready to hit the hay. The only problem is that my friend, Kim, and I were going to book us a room before we went to the game, but because of our late arrival, this didn’t happen.

We left right after the game to find a room for the night. By this time we didn’t really care what it looked like, we just wanted a bed and a pillow.

We found a room at a cheap rate and called the guys to meet us when they got ready. Kim and I even peeked in a room with the curtains open to make sure that it wasn’t a “roach motel.” Of course it was an empty room. It looked good enough to us. When the guys got there, we decided to check in and go to the Waffle House.

I didn’t care at all about eating, but I didn’t really want to stay in a room with a one-year-old by myself in the middle of the night, so we joined in.

The restaurant was only occupied by a cop and a little old lady sitting at a table together. We sat down and the guys immediately started asking questions about the area.

The cop proceeded to tell us that we were crazy for being on this side of town and if we didn’t get shot, we would be lucky. We told him where our rooms were and he just laughed. He was pretty serious about us getting out of the room and finding another place to stay.

I didn’t care anything about finding another place to stay because of the late hour and my lack of sleep. The Lord blessed us though.

We were able to get out of that room and find a much nicer room on a different exit for only a few bucks more. We ended up having a good night’s sleep and then headed to the Tennessee Aquarium the next day for an afternoon of fun and learning.