I've made the round-trip from the Raleigh area in NC to The Villages three or four times in the last 6 months. Taking 10 across all the way from Jacksonville to 75 and then heading down to The Villages definitely allows you to drive faster on average but you still have to drive quite a lot further. And if there's a traffic jam on 75, it's likely to be worse and last longer than 301. With that in mind, I find that 301 is faster, time-wise. It's still a nasty drive, what with the speed limit changing what seems like about every two miles and knowing that there are fine police officers scattered throughout all those little towns you drive through who would be more than happy to give you a little souvenir if they catch you going over the speed limit. My only consolation (for me, it doesn't do you any good) is that there won't be any more round trips for us as the next time we drive down, we'll be staying for good and not just visiting.
By the way, we (will) live at the south end so we'd expect the GPS to guide us to exit off 75 onto 44 but it has on one occasion taken us off 75 several miles north, then guided us on a scenic tour of the countryside before getting us where we wanted to be. After nearly 600 miles of driving that day, we were in no mood for scenery. Oh well. One more trip.
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