Two trucks got into the way of my travel plans, but in both instances, I found out about them long before I could get stuck in the traffic they caused.
First, a pickup truck being towed off the Nice Bridge changed my driving plans from “back way” to “Damn! I have to drive the Beltway.” No real traffic on the Beltway, though, or anywhere, until I got to effing Delaware. I hate Delaware. Don’t even get me started on how much. Ten minutes to get across, and they make you pay through the nose to do it. Plus they steal the rest of the country’s business by their sweet incorporation deals.
Told you not to get me started.
Then, once in NJ, a truck accident shut down 295 at precisely the exit I needed to get off. Some frantic phone calls to Bob and Kim, and I took an alternate route, only to miss 206 and wind up on the scenic route through Trenton. It seems to have picked up some in the years since I was last there.
We’re heading off to the pool for the rest of the day. Posting will be light. No, nonexistent.
This is one of the reasons I belong to the AAA, Meryl…that and a sense of direction that is so poor that I blush to report that I do a very unmanly thing and occasionally actually ask for directions.
Setting out on a trip I am armed with maps and, these days, sometimes a Mapquest printout. That usually reduces the aggravation from delays and detours.
Quite agree… I once spent about a half-day trying to get across that state, driving up the eastern seaboard. I’m convinced they publish intentional mistakes in their state road maps to mess with the drivers who are just passing through.
Rember KAOS is a Delaware corporation.
We travelled to Passaic last week. Delaware was awful. But Pennsylvania on the way home was even worse.
The I-95 tolls can be avoided if you don’t mind taking detours.
I don’t bother trying to avoid the Baltimore tunnels, because it adds a lot of time to go around the west half of the I-695 belt.
To avoid the toll over the Millard Tydings bridge, on I-95 north, the free detour is to take US-1 to cross the Connowingo hydroelectric dam. Doing this does add about 30 minutes to your trip. The quickest way to take this detour is to get off I-95 at exit 77 (route 24, towards Bel Air). Take route 24 until it ends and follow the signs to route 1 north. Stay on it until you cross the dam. Then take the first right immediately after the dam (route 222, going through Port Deposit). You’ll see signs to get back to I-95 about a mile past Port Deposit.
To avoid the Delaware Turnpike barrier toll, it only takes 5-10 minutes. Going northbound, get off I-95 at exit 109 and take route 279 northbound. Make a right onto route 2 (at an intersection with an Applebees restaurant), then make another right onto route 896 and rejoin I-95 (after the toll booth.) The same route works southbound as well – it’s exit 1 at route 895 in that direction.
I take both of the above. Partly because I save $7 worth of tolls, and partly because I pass many places to eat, and I’m usually in the mood for dinner by the time I get to that part of the highway.
You can also combine both of the above detours, adding a little more time, but a much more pleasant road than the interstate. After crossing the dam, stay on route 1. Somewhere in the vicinity of Rising Sun, the road will fork, with the right fork being route 273. Take that fork. Follow 273 into Newark, DE (it will become a low speed limit as you approach the U-of-D campus), make a right onto route 2 (at the U-of-D campus) and follow it (including that left where the Applebees is) to route 896 and get back on I-95.