So much driving the last few days 4 days.

"GTCL" (GTCL) 01/04/2014 at 21:30 • Filed to: None

0

17

So, we are probably going to be moving from jacksonville fl to Atlanta this year. I had Wednesday through Sunday off this wee, so we decided to go up to atl to see what our options are for where to live. We drove all over the damn place. We went everywhere from stone mountain to doraville, chamblee, norcross, Roswell, Alpharetta, east Cobb, sandy springs, Marietta, Smyrna, Woodstock, and kennesaw. We are back in Florida tonight, but I think we drove over 1,200 miles with the two kids in the back seat. The odyssey is an amazing road trip vehicle, but I don't want to drive again until I go to work on Monday morning.

Random photo for fun. I guess that is what I wish I had driven 1,200 miles in.

LSXforYourSuperCar > GTCL 01/04/2014 at 21:59

0

Atlanta GA, baffles me. Most large or rapidly growing cities establish themselves near navigable ports, rivers, or lakes. At the very least a city needs to build itself on top of a valuable natural resource, Atlanta has none of these but has traffic in spades!

GTCL > LSXforYourSuperCar 01/04/2014 at 22:05

0

I know I was driving around a holiday i.e. the two days after New Years, but I will say the traffic didn't seem much worse than the traffic in jacksonville. At least in atlanta the roads that need to be 4 and 5 lanes wide are. In jacksonville it needs to be 4 or 5 lanes wide and it will go from 3 to 2 back to 3. Jacksonville's road planners are awful. Everyone kept saying how awful the traffic is all of the time, but we drove from perimeter mall to Alpharetta on 400 Thursday afternoon and it was not that bad. It was better than driving on I-95 and I-10 in Jax that is for sure.

banjo cat ghost of oppo past > GTCL 01/04/2014 at 22:17

0

That's a ton of miles with not many interesting land features amongst em. Too little parents are appreciated for helming roadtrips of any significance.

I vaguely remember our '87 Vanagon "Big Blue" taking us from Denver to family in Devil's Lake ND... all the way to our new home in upstate NY and everywhere betwixt. It died quietly on the side on the highway south of Syracuse, as humble as it lived.

Its a brave thing you done driving into the unknown with your family in tow...I suppose what else is there?

GTCL > banjo cat ghost of oppo past 01/04/2014 at 22:21

1

Yeah it was a heck of a trip. The kids were awesome though, but I guess 9" headrest DVD and leap pads will do that. If we weren't looking at houses/neighborhoods we wouldn't have had the DVD player on so much. My son does love car spotting as much as I do, and both my son and daughter call out large 3+ car garages when we see them. Trained really well I guess ;)

f86sabre > LSXforYourSuperCar 01/04/2014 at 22:29

2

Atlanta was a rail hub for the SE. Hence it being a thing.

banjo cat ghost of oppo past > GTCL 01/04/2014 at 22:35

0

Great kids. Unfathomable what headrest TV's and leap pads would've been able to accomplish had they come sooner. ... all I had was carspotting. Or Toys R Us spotting I can remember least a couple tantrums from driving right by them.

f86sabre > GTCL 01/04/2014 at 22:42

1

Let me be the first to welcome you to ATL. We moved here in 1998. It's not bad. The thing you have to be careful of are the schools. It can be pretty spotty. We had a nice house in Dekalb County in Lithonia, but moved to Gwinnett to get into better schools. We are in Lilburn, which is just next to Stone Mountain, and we have good schools and a reasonable commute. East Cobb county and the area around Peachtree City probably have the best schools, but also the most expensive homes. Traffic is the worst on the north side between I-75 and I-85 and the highways leading into the core of town. I like it on the east side as we were able to get some property for a reasonable price, the schools are good, traffic isn't horrible, we have ethnic diversity (lots of good food near by). We are also, 25 minutes from downtown in the evening and can be in Decatur, a fun area, in about 15 minutes. Road Atlanta is 40 minutes north.

I'd stay out of Fulton and DeKalb counties. Fulton has the majority of Atlanta proper and the city gets all the attention. DeKalb is a corrupt train wreck that was threatened with loosing its accreditation for th schools.

Our neighbors 5 acre place is for sale. Has a nice big shop out back. Just sayin...

LSXforYourSuperCar > GTCL 01/04/2014 at 23:04

0

Make sure you buy a place within no less than five miles of your place of work. Otherwise you will be spending several hours a day trying to get to work and trying to go home.

I think it's great that Atlanta is booming and it is great place to get a job, but in my opinion, Atlanta might have the worst commute per/person/ per mile. They've got to do something about that before Atlanta can grow larger.

GTCL > f86sabre 01/04/2014 at 23:07

0

Thanks for the welcome, and the info. We drove around lilburn and stone mountain on Thursday. We found exactly that regarding the houses there. We loved that you can get more for the money there. I'm not sure where will end up yet. Work will be at Ashford-Dunwoody though, so I want to stay relatively close, meaning 30 miles max from there. 5 acres huh? That would be so awesome.

GTCL > LSXforYourSuperCar 01/04/2014 at 23:11

0

I want to be as close as possible, but my wife tends to have other criteria for the house ;) my current commute in Jax is just under 30 miles and takes right at a half hour with no traffic. I usually work 12:45 pm until 9:15pm, so I rarely have to contend with traffic. I'm looking to stay on the same shift when I go to Atlanta. (My company will be relocating my department) if I go I'm at a regular time now my commute at least doubles. That is one of the many reasons I like the shift.

GTCL > banjo cat ghost of oppo past 01/04/2014 at 23:14

0

I did get the game boy later on, but I had car spotting out of the jump seat in the back of the 87 country squire, reading books, or playing with micro machines and hot wheels of course.

LSXforYourSuperCar > f86sabre 01/04/2014 at 23:15

0

You are right, Atlanta was built on the northern most plane of flat-land, therefore railways and the planners of the interstates conspired to intersect "all-things" in atlanta.

Today everybody in Atlanta conspires to make all-through-traffic feel secondary to the natives.

f86sabre > GTCL 01/04/2014 at 23:19

0

They are asking too much, but it is a nice place. We have an acre and no HOA. Makes me happy as I was tired of dealing with that crap.

Ashford Dunwoody is kind of in the heart of crappy traffic land. You should look at Johns Creek. North side of 85 and good schools. I'd say check out Tucker, but it is DeKalb.

f86sabre > LSXforYourSuperCar 01/04/2014 at 23:22

0

It is easy to tell who is who. Natives are doing 15 over the limit. Everyone else is doing 5 over in the fast lane and thinking they are bad asses.

GTCL > f86sabre 01/04/2014 at 23:23

0

Second on my list after close to work is no HOA. I'm tired of the one I have now. We looked at Tucker too. My wife wasn't super impressed with it. I could go either way. Today was norcross, Roswell, and Alpharetta between 400 and 85. We liked that area quite a bit, but I think my wife liked east Cobb area the best. Our kids are homeschooled, but good schools typically go along with good neighborhoods.

f86sabre > GTCL 01/04/2014 at 23:31

0

East Cobb is good, but spendy. Traffic into town is ugly as well. My GM lives up there and it is an hour each way to the airport for him. They are also going to be moving the Braves to the intersection of 75 and 285 so traffic will get even worse. All that said, good neighborhoods and easy access to the north GA mountains.

Good luck with the house hunt. Hit me up if you need any info.

banjo cat ghost of oppo past > GTCL 01/05/2014 at 00:06

0

Tsss Country Squiiiire, FUCK! The one other cool family car...I sat in some jump seats in those days but I would've given all my fruit rollups for a Country Squire ride. Gah micromachine flashback I had a giant collection...