My hometown is small. What that means is: when I go anywhere and they say "where did you grow up?" or even "where do you live (now, which is not my hometown)", I always just answer "Atlanta". Everybody knows where Atlanta is: it's the home of Delta, Coca-Cola, Waffle House, Chick-Fil-A, the CDC, Hartsfield Airport, and so much more! But if I were to say the names "Dacula", "Loganville", "Lawrenceville", "Buford", "Tucker", I promise even people who hail from Georgia would look at me like I was crazy if I said I was from any other town in Georgia that isn't "Atlanta". How do you pronounce these other towns? Bo-ford? Dracula?
I get it. When you live in rural Georgia (and seriously, who lives in the city?), nobody knows where anybody else is from.
So, like I did in Savannah this weekend, when someone asks where I'm from I say "Atlanta." And the person in questions asks "Oh? What school did you go to?" and I say some place way outside Atlanta … Well, it turns out she went to a school on the outskirts of town too. See? Us "Atlantans" are all alike. ;)
Anyway, rather than tell you what I miss about my hometown (which is nothing), I've decided to tell you how to get by when you visit Georgia. There are lists and lists about these topics, and as you'll come to realize, most of the lists are accurate.
1. If the location you are visiting has "Peachtree" in the name, be very careful about how you input it into your GPS. According to Wikipedia, there are at least 71 streets in Georgia that use the word "Peachtree" in the name.
2. Drink coke and only coke. Pepsi is not an option. (It's not likely you'll find any restaurants that serve pepsi in Georgia anyway!)
3. When you hear about "Spaghetti Junction", the reference is to the Tom Moreland interchange where I-85 (that goes straight through the city), I-285 (that goes around the city), and various ramps for roads including Buford Highway/US 23, Chamblee-Tucker Road, Pleasantdale Road, Northcrest Road meet. It is less confusing than it sounds, since you are likely not actually making any real, life-altering decisions as you drive over or under bridges here, but it does look like a plate of spaghetti from above as local news stations have made abundantly clear over the course of it's existence.
4. Don't visit Atlanta if a snowstorm is going to come through. If you do, buy bread and milk in advance (they will go out of stock), and prepare for terrible delays. It's not just that Atlantans aren't used to bad weather, it's that Atlantans don't get bad weather frequently enough to be prepared for it. We assume the snow will clear quickly, so we don't salt the roads; THEN we complain when vehicles get stuck and people aren't able to get home from work to their loved ones. The city essentially shuts down. So yeah? Don't tempt fate. Just stay home if the weather reports suggest snow during your Atlanta visit.
5. Speaking of weather, consider visiting the city between November and March if hot weather isn't your thing. The high during the summer can get to over 100º + humidity making for misery. It comes to the point when you are begging for 88º rainy days or––the horror––winter!
6. Politeness rules. Don't talk back to your elders (even if you don't agree), always hold doors open for the people behind you (especially if it is women or the elderly, but women aren't above holding the door open for men either here!), and if you have to say something bad about somebody else always follow it up with "bless his/her heart!" :)
7. Don't drive between 6AM-10AM or 4PM-7PM. Of course, those times vary, but what doesn't is rush hour where, inevitably, you will sit. in your car. for hours.
8. Pollen season is a thing. Want a yellow car? Every year for just over a week (sometimes as long as a month) at the end of spring, everything sitting outside for any length of time (an hour, a day) gets covered in sticky, yellow pollen. In fact, you may have trouble finding your car after a busy day at the office or while touristing the city up–wasn't my car not yellow?
9. Football (not soccer) is big here and you are either a fan of Georgia Tech or University of Georgia. Let me give you a heads up, if you follow this blog––it's UGA! :)
10. MARTA as public transportation does exist but should not be counted on for travel around Georgia. MARTA does travel pretty far out of the center of the city, but you have to know the routing well to make use of it, otherwise you'll never get where you are going. Furthermore, just because you can take MARTA to another county does not mean you won't have to walk long distances to your destination. Don't confuse Georgia transportation with any other big city's. It's not. You need a car.
What do you think of my home city? Does it sound confusing? Could you fit in?
Jump into the discussion and link-up for #TopTenThursday here! 😀
***Linking up with Lauren on Location, Marcella from What a Wonderful World, and The Sunny Side of This
