Casa De Morrill

Saturday morning, Sean and I woke up bright and early so that we could meet up with his family in Rome, Georgia where his sister goes to college. Berry College was having it’s annual tradition Mountain Day where family and friends come to visit and there are lots of activities to keep everyone busy and happy. It’s a pleasant tradition and it gives Sean’s family a chance to go up and see how Amy’s doing at college. We even got the chance to see a lot of the pottery she has been working on and even got to watch her throw a pot.

So, Sean and I strike out towards Scottsboro, figuring we’d take our normal route as if we were heading towards Atlanta and then take a small detour part of the way there so that we actually wound up at Berry and not in Atlanta. Then, we started to discuss it and the map wound up getting pulled out. Maps are dangerous things. They can make you start questioning whether or not your going the right way. After close inspection, there are about 4 viable ways to get from Huntsville, Alabama to Rome, Georgia. Four! We’re talking about going from one medium-sized town to a small-sized town. Too many decisions.

Route 1: Our normal route would have taken us through Scottsboro, then onto Hwy. 35, then Hwy. 40 to Hammondville -> Mentone -> Menlo -> Summerville and after Summerville, just staying on Hwy. 27 until it drops us at the entrance to Berry College. Relatively easy, especially since Sean and I know this route like the back of our hands by now. But, it’s the same roads we see every time we go to Atlanta, so we wanted to try a different route.

Route 2: This would be taking the route that Heather and Jess used to take in order to get to Atlanta, but we’d just stop when hitting Rome. This route includes going to Scottsboro, picking up Hwy. 35 and heading through Fort Payne. (Let me make note that Fort Payne is the Sock Capital of the World, very special honor.) Stay on 35 until it deadends into Hwy 20 and then taking 20 to the Rome bypass (like this town really needs a bypass). Then, take the bypass and follow the signs to Berry College. We chose this route partially because I could calculate the time it would take us to get there and that was important since we had to meet the folks at a certain time. But, just for the sake of argument, let’s examine the rest of the routes that we could have taken.

These next two routes were completely new to me and take you in the same basic direction, but I still count them as different routes.
Route 3: Take Hwy. 431 heading through Guntersville and then on until you get to Gadsden. In Gadsden, you’d pick up Hwy 411 and continue taking that until you hit Rome and again, pick up the bypass that would take you on to Berry College. It was an interesting prospect, as it’s a completely new route and as far as I can tell, the roads would be 4 lane the entire way, which is pretty cool. We will have to try that method in the future.

Route 4: Similar to Route 3, but instead, we take Memorial Pkwy South out of town and follow 231 down through the armpit of Alabama until we hit Hwy. 278 and take that East to Gadsden. Again, hit Gadsden and take 411 the rest of the way to Rome. blah blah blah… A thoughtful way to go, especially since we used to take a similar route to get to Guntersville when we sailed there. But, as I remember about that route, the roads are mainly two lanes and it really does go through the armpit of Alabama. Just about as smelly, too. So, that one I believe I’ll pass on.

So, there you have it, four routes to get to Rome from Huntsville. Choose your own, collect all four! errr.. anyway, time to get back to programming.