Beefcake on the Harrowing Road from Nashville to Atlanta

Nashville and Atlanta both have presentable gay communities, but if you're driving between the two cities, be prepared for mile after mile of homophobic "family values" desolation and despair. .

1. Mount Juliet (20 miles).  Not incorporated into a city until 1972.  No mountains or Juliets around.  City Hall is in a strip mall.  Best restaurant in town is Chick-Fil-A.

The Mt. Juliet High School Bears are "like one big family"











2. Murfreesboro (34 miles).  Home of the World's Largest Cedar Bucket, a civil war battlefield, and Middle Tennessee State University, where I taught as an adjunct while living in Nashville. My office was in a trailer..





Murfreesboro Crossfit


















3.  Tullahoma (77 miles), "Tennessee's Rising Star," population 18,000.  Its main claim to fame is the Jack Daniels Whiskey brewery, 12 miles away (in a dry county, paradoxically).  And two martial arts schools where you can study  Thiai boxing, MMA, and judo















4. Sewanee (93 miles), which is nowhere near the Suwanee River, is home to the prestigious University of the South and the St. Andrews Sewanee Prep School. Definitely worth a visit for the ornate Gothic architecture.





And the wrestling team.




5.Chattanooga (134 miles), in the heart of the Smokies, is the only big city on the road.  170,000 people, of whom 90% are Southern Baptist.  It's got museums devoted to the railroads and the tow trucks.

This is the swim club at the Baylor School, an exclusive private school in Chattanooga.  They have a Gender Committee but no Gay-Straight Alliance.







6.  Dalton, GA(163 miles).  You've made it into Georgia.  Still in the mountains, though.   There's a state college, a  civil war battlefield, and the Georgia Coaches Hall of Fame.















7. Sonoraville (190 miles)

Not much in Sonoraville except a church (Baptist, naturally) and Sonoraville High School, which has 1400 students.  No Gay-Straight Alliance, but there is a Chick-Fil-A Leadership Academy.

And a wrestling team with these singlets.







One more.


















8.  Emerson, GA (213  miles).  1600 people, a resort town on the shore of Lake Allatoona, where you can go fishing.  It also hosted the 2016 Summer Showdown weightlifting contestn.




9. Kennesaw (225 miles), a suburb of Atlanta known for its law that every head of household must own a gun.  Sounds cozy.    There's a civil war battlefield (is there any town in Georgia that wasn't blitzed during the Civil War?). a museum combining Civil War and railroad artifacts, and the Pigs and Peaches Barbecue Festival.











Ugh.

But don't worry, Piedmont Avenue in Atlanta is only  25 miles away.