1/20/10

We had heavy traffic in Buffalo. We had light traffic in Worcester. We had a snow storm in Syracuse. We had sunshine in Albany. We had flat land in Western New York. We had steep climbs in Western Massachusetts. We had cold weather along I-90. We had... well... even colder weather along I-95. This Tale of Two Cities motif could go only so far, I suppose.

This long day of driving may have been even longer if not for the damned feds. Eleven hours is the limit for one shift. That's plenty of hours as far as I'm concerned, but the inflexibility of the rules can lead to a problem. If I had driven eleven hours today, I would have found myself somewhere between Portland and Augusta. I think that there is a service plaza along the turnpike up there, but I seem to recall the parking being extremely scarce. I don't get to Maine very often, so my memory on the subject may not be 100% accurate, but I really can't take the chance and find out the hard way that I was right. If I drive the full eleven hours and then can't find a parking space, there is no provision in the rules allowing me to drive to the next truck stop or rest area. Some bureaucrat has decided that an eleven hour drive is just peachy, but eleven hours and twenty minutes - deadly.

So I had to play it safe and stop at the service plaza on the turnpike before Portland. And the mornings just keep getting earlier. To reach Milbridge by 8am, I'll probably have to leave here around 3am or so. It's a little over 200 miles from here to there, but I have no idea how long the drive will actually take. It's snowing, for starters. The pace of traffic wasn't bad this afternoon, but if the snow comes down all night, who knows? Plus the last fifty-something miles will be on U.S. highways, winding through various towns. Plus I need to make a fuel stop along the way. So yeah, I guess 3am it is. Fun times...