Shady Hills Slalom Remembered
There was a police standoff in Shady Hills overday, and when I looked up the area it brought to mind the place as it was when I was a college student and a new car driver...
Back then, the north section was a four-mile straight, that didn't enjoy much in the way of police patrolling because it was very sparsely populated in comparison to Hudson or Land O' Lakes. So it attracted a particularly rowdy form of commuter. And I took it because it was much more direct than going west to US19 and taking it all the way through Port Richey, Elfers, and Palm Harbor to Clearwater.
But what made the Shady Hills Road interesting...
The straight ended very abruptly with little warning as a sharp, 90 degree LEFT corner. And then a half-mile later, just after the exit to Crews Lake Park, an equally demanding 90 degree RIGHT corner introduced the driver to the fun part of the course--a winding path through an orange grove, ending with the Golf Course on the left side (allegedly owned by actor Larry Manetti of MAGNUM P.I. and BAA BAA BLACKSHEEP fame), the junkyard on the right side, and the intersection with State Highway 52--which at that time had no traffic light and so the possibility of a jam of backed-up traffic.
Speeders and the occasional overloaded pickups would wipe out at the left-hander. Luckily, there was a larger-than-usual sand shoulder to settle down the errant vehicles. But if you got stuck in there, you were going to be there a while.
It was Hades for a yahoo in a muscle car--but fabulous if you were sly and sneaky in something light and nimble--like a Toyota Tercel. Some idiot would be on my back on the straight, and then couldn't keep up with me through the orange grove. Sometimes it can be fun to make your daily drive a sport, and Shady Hills back then was good for that.
But it isn't like that now. The addition of two public schools in the area means much lower speeds and more cops. The advent of the Suncoast Trail toll highway in the area broke the old path, so now it's more of a slow esse in the transition because of the new overpass/underpass. Most of the orange grove is still there, but it's being eaten away by the growth of the Quail Ridge subdivision, and will probably be gone in a generation or two. Every so often I'll dream of it, or maybe a road like it.
FP