We left Minneapolis at 8am, which would’ve been pretty good timing had the drive to Nashville been 750 miles, a number I had in my head and didn’t bother to recheck. It’s actually 900 miles, but we discovered that a while later, which was for the best.<\/p>\n
The drive was uneventful through most of the midwest. In Illinois, I was passing somebody doing 80 or so when I looked in the mirror to see a trooper riding my ass. I quickly moved into the right lane, looking shamed. He turned on his siren and sped by, giving me a dirty look. In all my years of speeding, that’s the closest I’ve come to a ticket on the interstate. Of course there was that time with the Minneapolis cop, but they’re easy. You just ask them out to coffee.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/photos\/superman1.jpg\")
We survived the bleak nothingness of southern Illinois and stopped quickly in Metropolis so Stephanie could see Superman. We arrived just in time for some kind of bizarre religious Superman festival; the main street was blocked off and there were vendors selling state-fair food and cheap designer knockoff schlock. A couple hundred old people were crammed in a tent listening to gospel music. It gave us the willies, so we got the hell out of there and crossed the border into Kentucky.<\/p>\n
In Paducah, we cruised the long strip of chain restaurants, looking for a place at which I could dine without serious after-effects. After a few tries, I discovered that TGI Friday’s had a gardenburger, and that was good enough for me. We shoved food in our mouths as fast as we could, trying not to choke while giggling over the employees’ goofy accents.<\/p>\n
I took over driving in the dark, which I hate. I have trouble seeing, and after I braked for a port-a-potty on the side of the road, wondering if it was a state trooper, I knew it was going to be bad. Stephanie wouldn’t stop laughing at me. We arrived in Nashville around 11pm, sat in a monster traffic jam, then finally got through to our hotel in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles south of town. It was situated directly between downtown and the festival site. I’m smart like that.<\/p>\n
As I stumbled out of the car, the front desk lady came to hold the door open and yelled, ‘REDHEAD!!!!’ I laughed. She told me about the time years ago when she dyed her hair red, and got so many marriage proposals she had to dye it back.<\/p>\n
God, don’t I feel that pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We left Minneapolis at 8am, which would’ve been pretty good timing had the drive to Nashville been 750 miles, a number I had in my head and didn’t bother to recheck. It’s actually 900 miles, but we discovered that a while later, which was for the best. 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If the scenery in Wisconsin is less than inspiring, Illinois is ten times worse, alternating regularly between vast expanses of nothing and vast expanses of nothing with snow. Things were looking bleak until we stopped\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Deep South Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Deep South Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/deep-south-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/bonnaroo\/mon-6142004-nashville-to-minneapolis\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":1},"title":"Nashville -> Minneapolis","author":"Jenni","date":"06.20.2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I was awakened at 5:30am, which was bad because then I spent the morning pacing, waiting for Stephanie to get ready. We were on the road just in time for rush hour traffic in Nashville. The troopers were pulling over all the single-drivers in the HOV lane, and there were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tennessee for Bonnaroo"","block_context":{"text":"Tennessee for Bonnaroo","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/bonnaroo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":165,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/bonnaroo\/bonnaroo-festival-june-10-14-2004\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":2},"title":"Bonnaroo Festival","author":"Jenni","date":"06.21.2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Stephanie and I went to Manchester, Tennessee, to see the second annual Bonnaroo Festival. It was a hell of a roadtrip, despite continuing car troubles and deadly heat. Read from the beginning below, or jump to each day: 6\/10: Minneapolis to Nashville 6\/11: Nashville, Bonnaroo Day 1 6\/12: Bonnaroo Day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tennessee for Bonnaroo"","block_context":{"text":"Tennessee for Bonnaroo","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/bonnaroo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":162,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/deep-south-roadtrip\/deep-south-roadtrip-march-28-april-6-2003\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":3},"title":"Deep South Roadtrip","author":"Jenni","date":"04.16.2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Jay, Heather, and I decided to see what the deal was with the deep south, anyway. We definitely learned. Here's the the map for the entire route. Read from the beginning below, or jump to each day: 3\/28: Pre-trip in Minneapolis 3\/29: Minneapolis to Nashville, Tennessee 3\/30: Nashville 3\/31: Nashville\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Deep South Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Deep South Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/deep-south-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/deep-south-roadtrip\/sun-462003-new-orleans-minneapolis\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":4},"title":"New Orleans -> Minneapolis","author":"Jenni","date":"04.15.2003","format":false,"excerpt":"The 1,200-mile, twenty-hour drive back to Minneapolis is all kind of a blur. From the interstate, the country looks pretty much the same no matter where you are. At one point or another, we spent time in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The main differences between\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Deep South Roadtrip"","block_context":{"text":"Deep South Roadtrip","link":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/category\/deep-south-roadtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":115,"url":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/baseball-roadtrip\/thursday-822007-minneapolis-to-chicago\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":5},"title":"Minneapolis -> Chicago","author":"Jenni","date":"08.6.2007","format":false,"excerpt":"[To view the entire Flickr photoset from this trip, go here.] Wendy, Willis, Matt and I piled in Matt's car and rushed the hell out of town on Thursday after work. 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