Loop 1 is much better known as MoPac (short for the old Missouri-Pacific railroad it straddles), but good luck finding that on a sign. State Highway 183 runs by the west side of the airport (that's Austin-Bergstrom International), but traveling north, don't be surprised when it turns into Ed Blue stein, then Anderson Lane, then Research Boulevard.
Even more confusingly, Airport Boulevard once rolled right past the airport – that is, the old Mueller Airport (now a neighborhood, but we kept the tower) – but it won't get you to one now, at least not before becoming 183 briefly, before you exit to Highway 71 (aka, Bastrop Highway).
Streets are no better: 26th Street turns into Dean Keeton as it passes by the University of Texas School of Law and then, east of I-35, into Manor Road. How about Highway 290, which west of I-35 turns into Koenig, then 2222, then Allandale, then Northland, before morphing back into (Ranch to Market, or RM) 2222?
But finding your way around Austin's streets is infinitely easier than pronouncing them. Consider the examples above: Manor is pronounced with a long "a," as if it were spelled m-a-i-n-e-r. Koenig, too, has a long "a" rather than the "o" sound you might expect. Then there's Manchaca (obviously "man-shack"); Burnet (it's "Burnet, durn it, learn it"); the above-mentionedMueller (rhymes with "tiller") development; and our original phonetic sin,Guadalupe, with its aggressively Anglicized enunciation: gwada-loop (with a hard "G" sound). No wonder locals call it the Drag.
1 comment:
Love it!
And of course we can't forget about these greats that will surely confuse a newcomer:
1) Loop 360 = Capital of Texas Highway
2) Highway 71 = Ben White
3) Ranch Road 2244 = Bee Cave
4) MLK = 19th Street
5) Enfield = 15th Street
6) Windsor = 24th Street
7) Cesar Chavez = 1st Street
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