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We started today a little later than usual, but the drive to Nashville from St. Louis is far from long, when compared to our other days of driving. Meeting Brian and Rachel at a breakfast spot near his apartment where Dena and I spent the night, we fueled up on food and then hit the road. Only problem was some road work. We sat, and then sat some more. Trying to just get onto I-64, we waited almost an hour I beleive to go only about 3 miles or so. And then when we got to the end of the road work, there was no road work. Just a lot of cones! I guess they had finished earlier? Or maybe they were just getting set up. Who knows!
The rest of the drive through Illinois went easy enough, though I kept feeling like it was going slow since I had wanted to be at Pearl earlier for a change, since coming from Richmond always makes us get there later in the afternoon. Once we hit Kentucky things picked up, since we were going through the thin parts of it and Tennessee, making things feel faster. We arrived right before 4pm, but at the last minute Brian's vehicle dropped from sight, but I didn't get a call on my cell phone, so we assumed all was well. Turned out he had been right on E, so he needed gas bad.
Getting to Pearl itself was easy, we avoided most of the traffic in the city. Nate was of course shocked to see me without my mustache, dismayed that I was out of the facial hair club. We assured him that I would be back, and he took me off to meet some guys at Pearl that I hadn't seen when we came through on the start of the roadtrip, since we arrived after they left for the day. Nate and I chatted with them about different drum stuff, and the hope that someday I might work there. We shall see, I suppose.
Got to meet Al as well, another moderator on the forum with me, who already was working at Pearl. Definitely a nice guy, there seems to be a steady stream of them across the country! After Al was done for the day and Brian and Rachel had caught up to us we all headed out to Ted's Montana Grill and had a nice dinner. There we realized that the reason all the hotels were booking up was because of the Country Music Marathon, taking place the next morning! Do Dena and I know how to pick the days to visit cities or what??
We had to cut the evening a little short since Nate had a concert he was going to that night, so after dinner we went our separate ways, off to different hotels or home. Dena and I had a little bit of a time finding the hotel since there were two similar hotels on the street we wanted, Extended Stay America and Extended Stay Studio. Naturally picking the wrong one first I gave someone directions to their hotel before seeing that the address was wrong for where we were and got directed to my hotel. It feels weird to know we're so close to the end of the trip! Tomorrow is the last day hanging out, then we drive home. Back to normal life!
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