See that little stretch of road? The one highlighted in blue? That's I-95 in New Jersey approaching the George Washington Bridge (over the body of water) into New York. The highlighted portion, from Exit 68 to the toll booth, which is right around Exit 73 is just about four miles.
Well, last night, it tooks me four hours to travel those four miles. FOUR HOURS. To go four miles. FOUR HOURS!
I am not even kidding you, people. I have to tell you, in all the years I've lived in New York (born and raised) and in the six years I've been on the road as a truck driver (having been to 49 states and 11 of the 13 Canadian Provinces and Territories), I have never SEEN or BEEN STUCK IN traffic as bad as last night. Never. EVER. Not once, since I first got behind the wheel of a car at fifteen and a half years old, to this very day.
Most of the time was spent sitting with the brake pulled. Not moving an inch. At one point, I even popped into the sleeper to get a bit to eat to bring back up to the driver's seat. I spent some time on the CB, which I never do, just talking to the other guys stuck in traffic. They were suprisingly nice....shocker.
Once we did start moving (and by moving, I mean inches), I thought my left leg was going to spaz out on me because keeping it poised on the clutch was making my muscles tremble. From the local guys on the radio, it seems this is a typical occurence on Sunday nights in the summer; everyone going home from the shore. Since we don't pick the night to be on the GWB, it didn't even occur to us to consider what day it was. Oh sure, you think about where you'll be at morning or evening rush hours and try to stay away if you can, but who gave any thought to the bridge on a Sunday night? I mean, it's not a work day or anything. And it was LATE. Ugh.
We were going to go another way but Ed decided against it. I could blame him, but really it wasn't his fault. Although I know I said at least once, "See? If we had just gone the way I wanted to go..." But really, neither one of us thought twice about it since we'd been through here many, many times. I know in the future, we'll be checking Google Maps to see the traffic; when we've used it in the past, it's been pretty accurate.
The worst thing about sitting in that traffic is that as the minutes tick by, you're less and less inclined to want to pay the toll. I'm surprised people don't complain more. I know the guys on the CB were thinking of not paying (joking, of course), but with cameras everywhere these days they'd likely find you and send you a bill anyway. Not really worth the additional aggravation.
Today Ed and I watched all of the video footage of us sitting in traffic. We got through it in about twenty minutes.
And my leg didn't hurt at all.
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1 YEAR AGO: How Can I Tread On You When I Can’t Even Turn Around?
2 YEARS AGO: Popping Good Time
3 YEARS AGO: Touching Down For A Quick Rest Break
4 YEARS AGO: Follow Your Heart
5 YEARS AGO: All About The Benjamins