Moving to a new city means getting lost at the strangest times. Like when I was dutifully driving on Alps Road and then I wasn’t. The street name changed to West Lake Drive. Did I miss a turn? Nope! If you are on Barnett Shoals Road, which turns unexpectedly into Whitehall, and you need to do a U-turn to get back on Barnett Shoals, you will find several miles later Barnett Shoals turns back toward the way you were headed when you missed the turn in the first place. You’ll be in Watkinsville, three blocks from Simonton Bridge Road, which is what Whitehall turned into when you missed the turn off of Barnett Shoals. Stay with me here.
I remembered the poem “The Calf-Path,” written in 1896 by Sam Walter Foss. It once again flashed through my memory as I tried to figure out where Timothy Road went. Not because I was curious where it would lead, but because I was driving on it and then I wasn’t.
Are you going clockwise or counter-clockwise driving on the loop that isn’t? It depends if you are driving on the Inner or Outer loop and where you are going or where you have been. The loop ends up where it began, but you have to get off the loop to stay on it. The first exit, or the last exit, depending if you’re coming or going is number 10. It used to be exit 11 until they improved the numbering. Exit number one is on the other side of town.
How far is it from the Outer Loop to the Inner Loop? Not very far, I found out after driving on them for several weeks. The Inner Loop and the Outer Loop are halves of the same divided four lane, limited access highway. The median is an important line of demarcation as the name changes from one side to the other. The loop closest to town is the Inner Loop, and since we are in the United States, travels in a clockwise direction. The lanes on the other side of the median, the furthest away from Athens by about 100 yards, is the Outer Loop. Is it faster to get to where you’re going by the Inner Loop or the Outer Loop? It depends, you can drive the entire nineteen and a half miles of the Loop at the legal speed limit in either direction and still knock 15 minutes off driving through town to get to the same destination.
Just don’t get off on Highway 78. Highway 78 can be Atlanta Highway, which is U.S. Highway 78, but not SR (State Road) 78. SR 78 cuts through the middle of the Loop on both the north and south side of the loop(s). The US 78 exit on the west side of town is number 18, the same one where SR 10 coming from Atlanta meets SR 10 Loop, also known as the Outer/Inner Loop that goes both clockwise and counterclockwise, depending on whether you are coming or going.
According to Wikipedia, “Between exits 4 and 8, there is an eight-route concurrency, consisting of US 29, US 78, US 129, US 441, SR 8, SR 10 Loop, SR 15, and the unsigned SR 422.” Old-timers here call this road the Athens Bypass. Bypass what?
Even with the University of Georgia in full swing, the local traffic isn’t bad and the countryside is just beautiful, turning even mundane address hunting into a scenic road trip. They’re even fixing the famous Loop that isn’t, it all depends on whether you are coming or going.
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