This comedy of 'road blocks' is too comical not too share. It was Thursday evening, August 9th. My parents came over to our house with dinner and offered to watch William as Laura wrapped up her workday and I finished loading our 'stuff' into the truck. Wow, we can really pack a full size truck plus hitch rack! The goal was to hit the road after Will's last bottle at 8pm. Mom and Dad completed the bath and bottle by 7:45 and away we went at 8:07pm - destination MAINE. We proceed to hit...
1) Roughly 9:15pm - south of Baltimore a sedan runs over what appears to be a white fence post traveling at 75 mph. The car rides over the post and kicks it up about hood height on the truck. My first thought "Oh sh**, don't hit my windshield!" Luckily I was driving a safe distance from the other vehicle and the post dipped down and glanced off the passenger side of front bumper in between head light and fog light. Phew! Didn't see the need to stop, later saw a 2" white scuff mark that should buff out.
2) Roughly 9:45pm - follow Dave's instructions to hit 895 Harbor Tunnel around Baltimore. He and his family are in his truck about 15 miles ahead of us I am guessing. Get through tunnel and link back up to 95. HOLY MOLY we hit some rain. Reduce speed to 30mph in left lane, wipers on high. Cars are driving with hazards and some are pulled off to the side under bridges. My truck has the weight of our 'stuff' plus 4 brand new tires...keep on moving.
3) Roughly 10:15pm - rain starts to break up and see a sign that reads "All 95 north lanes blocked due to accident, take MD US 40." Uh hunny wake up and confirm on Google Maps. Damn! What exit is this MD US 40? We take it and end up on some country roads. Estimated time lost = 40 minutes. Estimated cost = $4.00 for a small and weak 2 lane bridge. I proceed to tell Laura in my frustrated state when we retire I plan to build a bridge like this, charge $10, and sit and watch you people drive across it Coors Light in hand.
4) Exactly 11:40pm - just passed Exit 6 on the NJ Turnpike. Brake lights, a lot of them. Slow down and then dead stop, truck goes into Park. 5 minutes later = 5 cop cars pass us on the shoulders. 2 minutes later = fire truck and an ambulance on the shoulders. 5 minutes later = 2 tow trucks pass us on the shoulders. 10 minutes later = not 1 but 2 helicopter medi-vacs. On the one hand we felt terrible for who was seriously injured or worse killed. On the other hand DAMN we just wanted to move. Sir William now senses we are not moving and oh, time to wake up and fuss. Back on the road 2 hours later at 1:45am.
5) Exactly 2:50am - Construction across the Tappan Zee Bridge. 4 lanes down to 1 lane as the crews were replacing concrete slabs on bridge. Only a 20 minute backup this time!
I popped a 5 hour energy at a stop in Connecticut for gas and potty break. I was on a mission to drive straight through to Kittery, Maine and I did just that. We met up with Dave and his family at McD's around 7am and Laura took over driving for the rest of Maine. We arrived at the house at 10:45am.
I will let Laura tell the rest of our great vacation but I just had to share our 95 North trip in detail!
Sidenote - with karma on our side we made it home the following Saturday day and night in 12 hours. Quite a bit fewer than Thursday in 14.5.
No comments:
Post a Comment