Goodbye Atlanta…Hello To Roads Less Traveled!

Ahhhh…The beauty and peace we find on roads less traveled!

In the past, our Snowbird trips to and from Florida have taken us through the heart of Atlanta. And I can assure you those are NOT roads less traveled! Just the thought of sitting in that massive freeway parking lot ever again gives me the Heebie Jeebies!

So Peepaw set out to devise a new route home to the Heartland that would bypass that nightmare. And Peepaw was the perfect person to take on that task.

Golfers earn a gold jacket for their skills at playing golf. But Peepaw earned HIS gold jacket in 2004 when he was inducted into an elite group of UPS drivers called The Circle Of Honor.  And USA Today listed him as a UPS driver who traveled more than a million miles accident free!

There is nobody I would travel those roads with than Peepaw…for many reasons!

So Peepaw got out his trusty Atlas (do you still have one of those big books?) and he began to plot a new course to defeat that big city quagmire of roads also known as Atlanta.

We started out from Fort Lauderdale as we usually do, by taking the slightly less crazy Florida Turnpike instead of the deathtrap freeway otherwise known as I-95. Years ago we purchased what’s called a SunPass to allow us to skip the toll booths. The SunPass sticker is attached to the inside of our windshield, and our tolls are deducted from our prepaid account as we travel. 

We stayed on the Florida Turnpike until we reached Ocala, Florida where we headed to I-75. We stayed on the freeway the rest of the day, and we spent the night in Cordelle Georgia.

The next morning we continued on I-75 until about 30 miles South of Atlanta. And that’s when we left the road MOST traveled and we forged our new Snowbird path on  Highway 16.

I can assure you that’s when the scenery became much more to our liking.

The lightly traveled two lane highway wound through some picturesque small towns like Griffin and Newnan. And since we are lucky to travel with no deadlines the lower speed limit didn’t matter at all. In fact, Peepaw thinks our trip took almost the same amount of time since we were never forced to come to a dead stop in any big city traffic jams. (Slow and steady really DOES win the race!)

Those back roads and small towns brought joy to my heart!

We stayed on Highway 16 all the way to Carrollton, Georgia where we caught four lane Highway 27 into Rome just in time for lunch. (And that’s an awesome story for another day so stay tuned!)

Let’s just say we felt as if we had hit the lottery on these traffic free roads!!!

After an amazing lunch in beautiful Rome, Georgia we found our way onto a two lane road that wound through the mountains. The scenery was incredible.

But so were the hairpin twists and turns!

I wish we could have put the top down on our convertible since it was a perfect spring day, but our trunk was full so that wasn’t possible.  And even though there was hardly any traffic, those hairpin turns and the narrow road would be quite another story in bad weather. So this road is the one part of our Atlanta-skipping route Peepaw plans to rework before our next trip South, God willing.

This jaw dropping trip through those mountains ended West of Chattanooga where we rejoined I-75 and continued on to our destination near Nashville late that afternoon.

It was a WONDERFUL day filled with beautiful scenery, few cars, great food, new friends, and a beautiful future overnight city I can’t wait to explore when we head South in December. 

Oh…and a gift of pimento cheese spread to celebrate our 47th wedding anniversary. (I can hardly wait to share THAT story with all of you!)

Yes, Dear Readers, these roads less traveled are totally Meemaw Approved. But please let’s keep the secret just between us, OK? Otherwise these roads less traveled will become the roads MOST traveled when Snowbirds begin our next migration!