Day One: In Which We Found Super John...Er, Superman!

For the six of us youth who were on the last trip here to Tennessee, a find memory was accidentally ending up in Metropolis, Illinois, home of the incredible Superman. We followed the signs to find him, and sure enough, there he was, standing to protect the police department building. That day we went, no one seemed to be around, and the shops were closed. Also to our disappointment, Superman wasn't that... Super...

On the way into the 6,000 person populated town, you pass a Big John's supermarket, where there is a huge statue of Big John. So huge, in fact, he surpassed Superman's height by landslide.

I poked and prodded our sponsors this year into letting us find Superman again, for nostalgia's sake, and amazingly, they agreed. We ended up there right around dinnertime, so we actually stopped in Big John and got sandwich supplies to eat around Superman. When we got to the police station, Miranda and I noticed the stores were actually open, so we rushed to them and I bought an awesome Wonder Woman cup and a neat postcard for my collection.

After a ham sandwich and Minute Maid lemonade, we gathered around and got pictures taken with the big guy in a cape. Some of the guys played a game of hacky sack with him, too. We made sure we got a seniors picture and a "Super" seniors pictures; one of those who came to Tennessee to Copperhill.

We bid our goodbyes and made our way to Nashville for the night. My mom has a good friend from high school in Franklin, so we stayed with her and her husband at their church.

It was surprisingly cold and it didn't have a shower, but we were worn out, so we just made out the best we could and hunkered down to sleep.

One day down, too many more to go.