This trip was more of a visiting-and-gathering-info trip than a just-have-fun-exploring trip. It served these purposes:
FLORIDA: This is my sixth trip to Florida since 1977 and third in three years (actually, in 28 months). I have pretty much covered it all except between Pensacola and Tallahassee. Florida's interstates are three lanes in both directions -- and they need them for all of the traffic they have.
OBSERVATIONS: Some observations made while traveling in this area:
The Bests:
The Totals:
GEORGIA: I have been to Georgia a couple of times before (not counting flights through Atlanta). I got to be in several parts of the state I had not been to before. All of their north-south interstate highways are three lanes each direction whereas all east-west interstate highways are only two lanes each direction.
I arrived in Atlanta airport at 8:30 am local time. By the time I would get my rental car (Atlanta's airport is so large that it takes FOREVER to get anyway), I knew it would
be 9:00 am. Thus, the Atlanta rush hour traffic should be done. WRONG! Their rush hour traffic lasts at least until 10:00 am, maybe longer, but that is when I finally got out of town.
I thought only the big west coast cities had rush hour traffic after 9:00 am (and at least Seattle's is already started at 5:00 am). Now I know differently.
Georgia drivers are pretty lousy. They go at a variety of speeds, anywhere from 40 to 85 MPH on their highways. And on two-lane highways, doing 40 in a 60 zone is a real pain. And, like Kansas Citians, many of them ignore their turn signal device.
Georgia had many construction sites along highways. However, thankfully, they minimally impacted drivers. I do not recall that Georgia has so many very tall pine trees, especially in the
western half of the state. Impressive looking. They often line both sides of highways.
Highway I-75 from Atlanta was, surprisingly, three lanes each way. That is good because there are countless semi-trucks on that route. Usually, at
least in central U.S. north-south routes are rarely used and instead it is the east-west highways that are heavy with traffic. Georgia speed limit is
70 MPH compared to the 65 MPH that so many states east of the Mississippi River have. And, they make a HUGE deal of telling drivers every few miles that the minimum speed limit is 40 MPH.
Starting around 1:00 pm, it poured rain, and I mean poured, until I got LaGrange GA. Chattanooga was north of the rain.
I did get to drive (around 7:00 am on a Friday) by Fort Benning which I have often heard mentioned in the news over the years. Pretty cool looking from the very little I saw. Most everyone on the highway exited there as they headed to work.
TENNESSEE: I was born and raise in Tennessee and am seventh generation of that state on my mother's side. I had been to Chattanooga a couple of times before
but it has been many years. I wanted to check out the city since it is on my list of possible retirement places. How ironic if I moved here and ended up starting, and finishing,
all my days in Tennessee. Full circle.
MISSED VISITING:
-- Chattanooga: GPS simply could not find one apartment complex I wanted to check out. GPS kept trying to get me to go to Knoxville.
-- Chattanooga: GPS was either way off the mark of out of date. Tried to find several restaurants for lunch only to arrive at something totally different.
-- Rome: GPS again having issues. Could not find the civic arena nor the Heritage Park. But by this time it was pouring rain so I skipped another park plus two apartment complexes.
-- The famous golf course in Augusta GA. I did sneak one photo of some distant people practicing
The Worsts: