Yesterday, after getting the oil changed and tires rotated and balanced at my local auto repair shop, I decided to do some "roadgeeking".

My primary mission was to shoot new video footage of GA 365 from I-985 in Galnesville to US 441 in Cornelia.

For this particular shoot, I used a Vivitar 910HD mini camcorder... and I would wind up regretting my choice of camcorder over my tried-and-true Olympus SP-600UZ.

Once I took the results back to GRG HQ for editing and producing, it turned out to be the crappiest video I'd ever shot.

Picking the soundtrack and adding/synchronizing the captions alone can take me several hours, but that was the easy part. The hard part was to try and clean up the otherwise crappy video quality.

Just before 11:30 PM, I just said, "Forget it!" and called it a night.

In a nutshell, Vivitar sucks and you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

But all was not lost. I did have the Olympus with me and did a little "roadgeeking" (or "roadding" as AARoads's Alex would call it) on my way back home.

The first one was taken just off US 23/441/GA 15/365 on the outskirts of Demorest (just north of Cornelia).



While this is, indeed, GA 365, it is also US 23/441/GA 15. I can understand not posting GA 15 assurance markers here at this intersection, but GDOT could have at least put a pair apiece of US 23 and US 441 signs above the GA 365 signs. Most locals know this particular stretch of highway either as "365" or "441", but in any event, this is a case of where Georgia sometimes gives US highways no respect. If this had been another state (e.g. North Carolina), only the US highway signs would be displayed. Georgia can be very inconsistent in this respect unfortunately.

Heading further down 365, which since 1985 has carried the I-985 designation along it's 24-mile (38 km) contiguous limited-access portion from I-85 to Gainesville, I noticed a change on the big green sign for Exit 8 (GA 347).



Originally, the sign said "Friendship Rd/Lake Lanier". Apparently, over the past year since I shot my first I-985 video, GDOT changed "Lake Lanier" to "Lanier Islands Pkwy".

GA 347 originally ended here at I-985, but was later extended eastward to its current eastern terminus in extreme northeast Gwinnett County near Braselton. It's western terminus is at the main entrance to Lake Lanier Islands, and for that reason, GA 347 now carries the name "Lanier Islands Parkway" from I-985 westward.

For the first time in probably 30 years, I decided to venture along part of GA 347 toward Lake Lanier Islands. When I reached its intersection with GA 13 (Old US 23), I noticed this overhead street sign...



I'm not sure if GDOT or Hall County installed this particular sign, but the fact of the matter is that US 23 was rerouted onto GA 20 and I-985/GA 365 in the late 1960s. OOPS!

As I drove further down GA 347, I noticed that there was no longer an at-grade railroad crossing near its intersection with McEver Road (which becomes Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Gwinnett County) and it sort of threw me for a loop. In its place was a bridge that crossed over the tracks.

Crossing McEver Road, I headed further down 347 until I reached its intersection with Holiday Road. At that point, it dawned on me that in the years since I last was in this area, GDOT apparently built a brand new alignment for 347.

Using Google Maps, I did a little checking and my suspicions seemed to be confirmed...



Out of pure roadgeek curiousity, I turned onto Holiday Road and followed it down to McEver, and out of pure dumb luck, I came across this little roadgeek gem...



The I-985 shield is a 1960s-style design from the early days of the Interstate Highway System. When GDOT redesignated the southernmost limited-access portion of US 23/GA 365 as I-985 in 1985, the shield apparently replaced a GA 365 marker. The arrow below the sign above was apparently turned instead of replaced.

 From the weatherbeaten look of the above sign assembly, coupled with the history of I-985, I surmise that the brand new GA 347 alignment now known as "Lanier Islands Parkway" was completed sometime in the 1990s. As for the old at-grade railroad crossing on Holiday Road, I do recall my dad telling me about a former teacher of his being killed by a train at that particular crossing. From my childhood memory, I do remember there being light-and-stoparm assemblies there, but those may have been added sometime around the 1970s.

Given the growth of the area and greater traffic volumes, it definitely made sense to create the new alignment and eliminate the at-grade railroad crossing. Anytime trains and cars/trucks don't have to intersect with one another definitely makes it safer for the motoring public.

And finally, just before I got back into the car and headed down McEver, I took one final shot of Holiday Road looking westward for old times sake...



In the end, while the video shoot was a total wash, I did get to do some real good "roadgeeking" which brought back some old roadgeek-related childhood memories. It definitely reminded me that I was a roadgeek years before I even realized I was one.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading, have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend, and please come back often.

 

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