Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The Long Long Recovery

Can you say traffic? I certainly can. Monday I went to Scitaute Massachusetts. Google Maps said 14 hours 31minutes round trip. In small print it said "14 hours 56 minutes with traffic conditions." They were wrong in that estimate, very wrong. In small print it should have said " 18 hours 54 minutes." I left my house at 1 am and by 4:30 am I had crossed the George Washington bridge over the Hudson and was 18 miles into Connecticut. For those unfamiliar with I95 between Baltimore and Boston, that is very good time. I mean exceptionally good time.
But all good things must come to an end and to a screeching end it came. A tanker fire closed the highway down completely in both directions. It was trucks and more trucks with a few cars thrown in as far as I could see in front of me.
The continuous line of vehicles behind me were seeing the same. We all had to merge down to one lane and then off the highway. For three mile, two towns, and an hour and forty five minutes we made our way East and finally back onto the highway. Smooth sailing again until I hit Boston. Well, actually it was 30 miles short of Boston. I though Baltimore or Washington had bad rush hours. OMG!!!! Once again we crawled along.
This is why I was on the road while most people were sleeping. A 1957 Overlander titled as a 1958. I love those sweeping wheel wells. This trailer was bought by a client and he wanted it brought to the Port of Baltimore. The interior is one big blank slate. Nothing there except the water heater and the bath tub. There is also a self contained toilet. I suspect this trailer has been the project of a few owners over the years. The gut job looks to be many years old. To my surprise, there is very little floor rot.
So I hooked on and headed for home. That is the Atlantic Ocean you see there. Soon she will be sailing across that very same Ocean. I wanted to make a mad dash for home. I needed badly to get West of the George Washington bridge before the New York City rush hour began.
No such luck. 10 miles three hours.

$21 dollars to cross this bridge out of Gotham. They only clipped me $9 going the other way. From here on out the drive was fairly smooth. Four cups of coffee and four pee breaks later I was home. I slept like a baby for eleven hours straight.

5 comments:

  1. Hope you had the meter running ! But look on the bright side; it gave you lots of time to perfect those wing-mirror photos. Nice trailer though. Shame if she's destined for vendordom ?

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  2. Welcome to my world.
    I HATE the GWB.
    One time, in between the end of a football game played by the NY Jets against the NY Giants, and before a playoff game hosted by the Yankees, I had the pleasure of discussing Thanksgiving menu plans with my toll booth operator Earl. Earl is a lovely man who enjoys having a small gathering of friends and family each Thanksgiving. He claims he makes "the best" veggie lasagna every year for his guests, and because he liked my trailer so much, (and because I had nowhere to go for a while) he decided to let me in on his secret trick: Cook your veggies in a hot pan with butter, oil, dry white wine, and a little bit of garlic -- just until you can smell it. Whatever you do, Don't Burn the Garlic!!!

    Did I mention that I HATE the GWB? (Except for Earl of course.)

    dc

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  3. Oh yeah, the GWB. Back in my single days, I'd stay at my (now wife's) apartment in NJ and cross the GWB for my commute into Yonkers. Horrible.

    Living now in Connecticut, I avoid that section of 95 at all costs. I would have used 84 to cross the Hudson and then drop down. It's longer mileage-wise, but your odds of avoiding traffic are better (and the tolls are cheaper.)

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