While I didn’t have a problem with the driving (hell, the Kennedy Expressway to the Dan Ryan through downtown Chicago at rush hour doesn’t phase me), I was just surprised at the amount of traffic. Of course, it was the Friday before Christmas, which couldn’t have helped matters much.

Well, I don’t make it a habit of asking for road directions in every city I go through of every person that lives there when I travel. This marks only the third time I’ve been through Nashville over the last fifteen years; the last time I came through and tried to take Briley Parkway as an alternative, it wasn’t actually completed and I wound up having to take surface streets 🙂 That said, after I saw the signs on both I-24 and I-40 I realized that that probably would have been a good alternative.

Heh. I’d forgotten that was in Evansville. No, no brains for us. I had hoped to stop at the Bon Ton Mini Mart for dinner, but the weather was crappy enough and it was late enough that we had to grab a quick dinner at Hardees and get back on the road. That made me sad. Dan observed that as we have gone to Hardees over the years – maybe once every couple of years as we travel – each store has fewer and fewer people in it. It could be that we’re just hitting the wrong Hardees at the wrong times, or it could be that they are starting to suck worse and worse and people are recognizing that 🙂

#1: Amen to that. I always jump onto the city streets when heading into downtown (Usually 24 to Harding and take that west to Franklin Rd which becomes 8th.) There was an odd proposal about taking all interstates out of the downtown area a couple years ago, and I’d tend to agree with that idea. Put through the north loop and let people who aren’t coming into the city proper just get around and get on with their business.

Of course, I’d kill just to have 840 SOUTH done. 😛

2. Pancake Pantry is not just The Bomb, but it’s (a) about 3 blocks from my office and (b) about 15 minutes from our house. :-PPPPPPP