We were expecting a quiet trip to Tennessee.
There would be the obligatory pilgrimage to the Opry, several meals at Cracker Barrel, and a much anticipated steak dinner at Santa Fe’s.
And lots of rest and relaxation.
Imagine our shock when we arrived in Nashville in the middle of ten thousand ‘Dukes of Hazard” fans….
For “DukeFest.”
Yes…
DukeFest, the celebration of the “Dukes Of Hazzard television series and all things redneck.
Imagine seeing elderly and obviously well established business men dressed up in cut off jeans and muscle shirts. Obviously dressed by their wives, they did not look happy.
(It’s the masonic rings that always gives them away, along with they way they peruse the restaurant check while they slowly pull the cash out from their wallet. The tip always includes quarters.)
Just outside the Opry’s Checkpoint Charlie you’ll find the popular “Cooter”s gift store. You can’t miss the “General Lee” car parked out front. Throngs of people throw their ten dollar bills at the posted security guards to get their picture taken along side one of the most popular cars of the 1970’s.
Inside Cooters you can bury a pair of ‘Daisy Duke’ cut off jeans for $50.00. Strange thing is… the smaller the size the more expensive they get.
Smallest size they have is for a six month old and the price tag is $79.95.
Creepy, and no word of a lie.
Every sixty seconds someone sounds the “Dixie” horn. It gets old after two minutes.
There are all sorts of events planned for this three day extravaganza:
Crash Car Derbies…
Celebrity Racing…
Meet and greets with the original stars of ‘Dukes of Hazzard’…
This all culminates with a big night at the Grand Old Opry where…
“Dukes of Hazzard: The Musical”
is performed with John Schneider (Bo Duke) in the lead.
Trust me…
I couldn’t make this up if I tried.
When I try to think what the odds were of us landing in the middle of ‘Dukefest’ in Nashville Tennessee my mind does a backwards flip.
As we finally gas up at the station to begin our journey home, the attendant asks us if we’ll be back in three years for the next “DukeFest.”
Frank and I just bit our tongues and backed away….
…nice and slow.
We never laid as much rubber as we did that morning as we pulled out of the gas station.
Vin Diesel would have been proud.
