Yesterday, Sunday, I traveled from Charlotte to Atlanta to watch an Atlanta Braves game. The drive was about 4-1/2 hours each way. In case you're thinking of going to a Braves game, here is my review and opinion of everything involved.

The Game: 9/10. The Braves played the Marlins. It was a really interesting, close game. The players did a great job (for the most part), including the Braves' left fielder diving over a wall into the crowd to catch a fly ball. The only reason it wasn't a 10 was the horrible play of the Marlins in the 10th inning. After 9 innings, it was tied 3-3. The Marlins scored 4 in the top of the 10th, but then committed 4 errors (not all were scored as errors, but they were errors all the same) in the bottom of the 10th to allow the Braves to score 5. Other than that inning, it was a great game.

The Stadium: 5/10. The stadium was fair. You can see where they really went out of their way to make the place "nice." There was all kinds of non-baseball-game related crap that really didn't interest me and just took up space. They had a huge (I mean HUGE) scoreboard/TV in center field with all sorts of crap on it -- so much that you didn't even need to watch the game.

Heck, behind the scoreboard was the TV broadcast of the game -- so you could pay $35 to come to the game and sit and watch it on TV! The employees there were really annoyed that I had come to the game. They honestly seemed REALLY put out when I did something annoying, like order a hot dog. They insulted one another in plain view of kids and talked on their cell phones while serving customers. The food was good, but the only nice employees were the security goons at the gate.

Atlanta: -5/10. Holy crap. What a horrible place. The field is about 200 yards from the interstate. I got off the interstate and followed the signs to Turner Field. That was my first mistake. The signs for Turner Field led me to the Georgia Dome -- where the Falcons were about to play a game. When I could only enter the parking lot for the Falcons game, I finally took a left because I didn't want to pay $20 to park there. That was my second mistake.

I drove through downtown Atlanta -- past people sleeping on the street, piles of filth, and heavily armed people guarding their stores. Seriously. I saw at least 2 guys sitting outside stores with rifles on their laps. And no, the police were not around, they were all doing a feeble job of directing traffic (like blocking entire lanes for buses that were not there). I am glad I was armed at that time because if I'd have stopped, things would have gotten ugly.

I kept driving around a couple blocks and eventually found another sign that pointed to Turner Field -- in the exact opposite direction as the first sign. So, I followed that sign and it led me back towards the interstate where I finally actually SAW Turner Field -- on the other side of the interstate.

I tried to head towards it, but the road that led under the interstate was blocked by traffic cones and a police car. The signs forced me to turn right -- which led alongside the interstate and back in a circle back to the very same underpass. After making a second lap, I picked a direction AWAY from the field and just drove for a little while, looking for another way to the other side of the interstate.

About 3 miles later, I finally turned down another access road to head back towards the field. I saw another exit ramp that led to the field. Heading for it, I found my way blocked by another police car and a sign that said, "MARTA Buses only." By now, I had been off the interstate for 30 minutes, trying to find the damn field. So, I stopped my car in the right lane of the interstate and got out. I asked the policeman (after I woke him up) how in the hell to get to the damn field. He told me to get back on the interstate, head to the NEXT exit, go left, and turn left at the 3rd light.

So, I attempted to follow THOSE instructions. I drove past the field for the 4th or 5th time and headed to the next exit. The next exit had no signs for Turner Field at all. I got off anyway, and turned left. The third light was a 5-way intersection with TWO left turns. I randomly picked one (the wrong one) -- but at least I was actually on the correct side of the interstate finally and headed towards the field.

Winding through various alleys, and I think going the wrong way on one-way streets, I finally found the media parking lot for the field. I drove past it and could see the "Green" lot -- the one to which I had pre-paid parking tickets. I tried to drive towards it, but the road in front of the stadium was closed and no one could use it. I was now about 1/4 mile from my destination, but I wasn't allowed to go there.

Instead, the policeman told me to take a right, head up a block, and follow the road around to the other side. This road took me to some of the worst places I've seen (and I've seen a lot). There was trash piled high in the street -- we actually had to drive around piles of trash and tires in the road. We then drove by dozens of bums lying on the ground sleeping. About 20 blocks later, we could finally take a left and head towards the stadium yet again.

We finally got into the correct lot and drove about 2 miles around the outside of the lot before we were allowed to actually PARK. It took over 50 minutes from the time I left the interstate to reach the parking lot.

Leaving, we saw much more of the same with incorrectly labeled constructions signs (right lane closed -- actually the CENTER lane was closed), and two or three more places where there were run-down projects and I think we counted about 50 bums sleeping on the ground in various places.

Once we made it back to the 6-lane+ wide interstate, we watched with amusement at the so-called "HOV" lane went slower than every other lane there (2 mph instead of 5-8 mph).

What a damn cesspool. What a horrible, horrible place to live and visit. You'd think that such a place, which is supposed to draw people from out of town, would have an easy way to access it from the interstate. You'd think a city that wanted people to visit would actually make an attempt to clean up some areas that people visited (I know NY does NOT have this problem).

Overall rating: 3/10. I seriously doubt I shall make that trip or go to Atlanta ever again.

Posted by: Ogre at 04:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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