We've been wanting to check out the Xchanges group in Knoxville for quite a while, but it seems like every time we've tried to something has happened that's kept us from going.

This week we saw that they had an event coming up and again (as in prior times) the signup list on SLS looked awesome. Around 100 couples signed up with a large majority actually in our age range and attractive (to boot). We aren't closed to older couples but we really would like to meet some couples in our age range.

When we signed up they let us know that this was not their usual "Social" but was being held at a vanilla club that they were taking over till 11pm, at which time it would combine with the regular club, etc. No big deal. We like to dance so the idea that it was at a dance club just made it more appealing. So we made the plans. The hotel they had reccomended, unfortunately, was totally booked. So I got on Travelocity and plugged in the venue address and asked for nearest hotels. It gave us one that it said was a mile away that looked good, so we booked it. All was good and we were on on our way to Knoxville Saturday morning.

It's about a 3-3.5 hour drive from here to Knoxville (plus an hour time change going from Central to Eastern - which always screws us up when we go that way). Luckily, we planned for it and we got out of the house by a little after 11. We were making good time so we stopped in Cleveland at this awesome little Itallian hole in the wall (Mama's Italian if you are in the area - super cheap homemade italian food). Had a late lunch and we were back on our way.

For some reason we got to thinking that it might be a good idea to drive by the venue before going to the hotel, and it turned out to be a very good idea. We plugged the venue address into the GPS and suddenly our trip became 20 miles longer...???!!!! Something's not right. So we backed that out and thought we'll go by the hotel first and then go to the venue. So we got to the hotel and then plugged in the venue address... 15 miles away!!!!! Next stop Starbucks and Internet Access ASAP!

We drove on over to where the venue was thinking maybe we'd see a hotel nearby. NO such luck, we couldn't even find the venue! Luckily, the GPS I got Pet for Christmas is way better than the one in my car and it actually found us a Starbucks within a mile of where we were so we went there and got online. Found the venue website and it gave a list of nearby hotels (thankfully). So I called and luckily the first one had a room. It was a mile from the venue. Cool. Then back to the venue website to see if we could figure out where this place was. I got a good idea so we went driving again and did finally find it... and promptly decided that we'd be cabbing it that night.

We found our way to the new hotel we'd just booked and discovered they were evidently hosting an elementary school scholastic bowl!!! YIPPEE!! Thankfully, they put us on one of the upper floors and the kids on the lower ones (the only downside was that meant waiting even longer for the elevators that the kids were using as toys). We did learn a trick, though! Pet had heard somewhere that if you hold down the floor button (and keep it held down) once the elevator starts it will go directly to that floor - non stop. We tried it twice and it worked both times. Not really something you can do when other people need to stop at different floors.

So we finally get settled in, have some sex and get ready to go out. They had said to arrive between 7:45 and 10:45, and being the early birds that we are, we arrived at 7:30. The door was locked and cabbie really didn't want to just leave us there (can't say I blame him). Luckily, the hosts were there and saw us and invited us on in. The hosts for this party are just some of the most awesome people I think I've dealt with at any club. Very friendly and gracious. Since we were so early we got to talk to them a bit. We waited probably 40 minutes or so before much of anyone else showed up. Then people started coming in and it wasn't long before we were chatting away with one couple after another that we'd emailed the week prior. I think out of the 100 or so couples listed, we only emailed like 5 couples but we actually managed to identify and meet all of them, which was a plus in itself.

There were some very hot couples at this party and the only downside was the location was so HUGE for the number of couples that were there, that everyone ended up spreading out. I think we got our exercise trying to meet and talk to as many people as we could. We had one couple that kept popping up every time we turned around, and eventually we gave in and tried to enjoy their company. It was a little awkward as it was obvious the attentions were more one-sided, and that they seemed more into me than into us as a couple (I know that annoyed both of us). By the end of the night we were almost running away from them, as we'd gone to the other (vanilla) side of the club and turned around to leave and there they were, so we turned back around and headed the other direction.

Overall, this is one of the nicest groups we've been to. Pretty much everyone that we tried to talk to was friendly to us and talked to us, without making us feel like we were intruding, with one exception. There was an area in the back where there was a large fan and several couples had gathered around it. We wondered back there and I made the comment "you guys look like the cool kids so we thought we'd come say hi" (get it "cool" fan...) Evidently, they didn't get my joke or they were just snobs, I'm not sure which. One of them replied back with "we're definitely NOT the cool kids" and I smiled and laughingly said "well it must just be the fan then". "yeah must be" as they turned back around to their group. Um ok, so we just walked away and found more friendly folks - of which there were plenty.

We had a good time overall, but I can't say we'd make the drive/expense for that venue again. We definitely do want to go and check the group out again at one of their regular socials (which, of course, they are starting back in 2 weeks).