Travel So, you think Route 66 has a neat song? You ain’t heard nothin’ yet. Languishing somewhere in an unknown business vault lies a song…a rip-rollicking C&W song about Interstate-75 which quickens your heart and gets your toes a-tapping...and, on an old 45 rpm record, I have the only copy! Here’s the chorus… I’m rollin’ along...down I-75 leavin’ all my worries far behind, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf...along I-75, ain’t got nothin’ but blue skies on my mind. It never aired in public except for one play 40 years ago in 1977; by the time you finish this story, you’ll have a chance to hear it and enjoy what I consider to be a hidden treasure for I-75 travellers. But first, the “back story.” For many snowbirds today, a ride down I-75 to their Florida destination is a “straight shoot” toward the sun. But it wasn’t always that way. When I started driving it in the 1960s, many sections were still in the planning stage. Through hilly Tennessee and north Georgia, parts of the route were still a dream. You would cruise for a few miles on the brand-new smooth road surface at the thrilling speed limit of 55 mph (89 kph), only to be slowed down by ripple bars followed by a barrier across the road and a sign pointing to the old Dixie Highway – US 41. This happened with regular monotony through these mountain states and it’s howKathy and I discoveredmany useful side routes, which we sometimes share with our readers as “escape routes.”These useful detours can sometimes steer you around today’s interstate problems. Remember the Tennessee hill slide of March 2016, which blocked the I-75 for six weeks? We detoured our readers onto a paved parallel logging road which only we and the locals knew – we had discovered this during our early 1960 drives. Finally, in 1965, the interstate was completed...except for a 45-kilometre break in Georgia which became known as the Marietta Gap. For years, cars had to leave the freeway at Georgia’s Aubrey Lake (exit 293) and rejoin it at Marietta (exit 265). In between, we drove the muddy Old Dixie Highway described by one local as “a jumble of roadhouses, rundown service stations and fruit stands.” The Ballad of I-75 or the Interstate’s lost music treasure Dave Hunter is the award-winning author of “Along I-75” and “Along Florida’s Expressways” the quintessential guides for those driving to and in Florida. With his researcher wife, Kathy, he enjoys travelling with history, gathering unusual and mysterious local stories. The Hunters winter in Lakeland, Florida. Bill’s I-75 Scrapbook with 45 rpm record Scrapbook - photo of the Opening Ceremony setup, with Bill’s notes CSANews | WINTER 2017 | 17
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