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Maybe you want to take the family to splash around this weekend at Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe, the water park on the south side of Greensboro. It sits right next to the Greensboro Urban Loop near its interchange with northbound Business 85 and southbound I-85.

You can see Emerald Pointe as you drive by. But you can't get there from the Loop, if you're driving west from the Triangle.

There is no off ramp to northbound Business 85 for westbound Loop drivers.

This missing exit is just one of the myriad mysteries of Greensboro's Urban Loop, where NCDOT has changed the signs again to reroute I-40 back onto its old path through the city's crowded Death Valley corridor (see today's Road Worrier column, with reader comments). (Why did DOT make the switch? For money.)

It's hard to navigate Death Valley and the Loop and their various interstates. The signs are lacking or confusing. And don't ask Google or Mapquest to help you -- they're both wrong on how they label the interstate routes around and through Greensboro ... [MORE] .

I get lost when I'm trying to find my way home after Sunday dinner with Mom.

It should be easy: Follow I-40 from her place near Greensboro to my place near Chapel Hill.

But it’s hard. I blame DOT and the fiendish maze it calls the Greensboro Urban Loop.

Now DOT is switching signs again – rerouting I-40 and “Business” I-40, posting new exit numbers, putting up new sign colors, even changing the mile markers. Can't they leave dumb enough alone?

Is it just me, or are there other folks who long for the old days of Death Valley -- where all roads through Greensboro led to a narrow, smoky, dangerous corridor?

If you have problems traveling I-85 and I-40 through or around Greensboro – or if you have solutions – I’d like to hear from you.

Please e-mail me or call me at 919-829-4527. Don’t forget to include your name and workday phone number.

The folks at NCDOT can be forgiven if, like doting parents, they keep showing off pictures of their kids. You've seen 'em before, but you don't really mind looking at fresh photos, do you?

DOT's new 2009-10 state transportation map features a pretty pic of the Linn Cove Viaduct -- last seen on the 1996 map -- on its cover.

This curvy mountain road is part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and now also part of the new Grandfather Mountain State Park. (Also on the cover: old New Bern and the new NASCAR museum being built in Charlotte.)

What else is new, in a state that hasn't put many new roads on the map lately?

* The U.S. 70 Clayton Bypass is there, and the road formerly known as U.S. 70 is now marked 70-Business.

* Another chunk of Charlotte's I-485 loop has been added. (Nothing new on Fayetteville's loop, yet!) ... [MORE]

The state Department of Transportation stands to regain about $3 million a year in lost highway money when it returns Interstate 40 to its old route through Greensboro’s clogged, polluted Death Valley corridor.

Doug Galyon of Greensboro, chairman of the state Board of Transportation, cited complaints from Greensboro residents when he announced plans last week to remove I-40 signs from Greensboro’s new Urban Loop bypass.

Residents in neighborhoods near the bypass complained of losing sleep because of noisy nighttime truck traffic. I-40 motorists said they frequently lose their way on the eight-lane Urban Loop.

But DOT officials acknowledge that the deciding factor was a chance to restore federal interstate maintenance money that had been lost to the Greensboro area after the old Death Valley route was renamed Business 40 in February.

Lacy Love, DOT asset management director, said today the state will qualify for roughly $2.7 million to $3.2 million each year in additional federal money for repaving and repairs after it restores the interstate highway designation to the 15-mile I-40 route through Greensboro’s Death Valley.

The change, which will take effect later this year, also will mean a shorter journey for I-40 travelers. The new bypass added five miles to the odometer for every I-40 journey — although DOT stretched its mile markers to mask the difference.