10/11/09

Oh, my poor, pitiful little Redskins. I'm pretty sure at this point that Coach Zorn wouldn't mind getting fired, going back to being a quarterbacks coach somewhere, and escaping from that train wreck of an organization.

Today's drive, much like yesterday's, had the appearance of a potential nightmare. Also like yesterday though, the delay was relatively minor, all things considered. I got rolling late in the morning and cruised through Jersey without any delays. I made it all the way to the EZPass lanes on the George Washington Bridge without having to wait for anyone. Even on a Sunday, that's pretty solid. Halfway across the bridge, things came to a stop.

If you're going to encounter a messy situation, I suppose that there is some value in showing up early in the process. An intermodal truck had flipped over on the ramp to the northbound Major Deegan not too long before I showed up and the freeway was shut down. A wrecker had to approach from the exit past the accident, drive the wrong way down the freeway, and then back down the ramp to retrieve the wrecked truck. Once the cops figured out what to do with the situation, the whole area was probably going to be a mess. Luckily for me though, they hadn't come up with a plan yet. As soon as the wrecker made his way onto the ramp, they let those of us who were waiting go on our merry way.

The Bronx was the Bronx. It was moving at the 15-20mph weekend speed as opposed to the 3-5mph weekday speed, so good enough. Once we got outside the Pelham Parkway it was smooth sailing on into Connecticut. Then I got the bright idea to stop at a service plaza for some lunch. Yeah, that went well. There were a bunch of tour buses carrying the UMass band. Apparently I showed up right when they had stopped for their lunch break. Beautiful. (Yay, Delaware! Hehe...) I was pretty damned hungry but I wasn't waiting in that line, so I got the pleasure of spending four bucks on a little bag of salt & peppered cashews. In related news, salt & peppered cashews are delicious. The hint of pepper flavor blunts the sweetness of the aftertaste without overpowering the flavor of the nuts themselves. Excellent.

I was almost inclined to stay at that damned Pilot in Milford for the day after stopping for a shower. Then I thought it over and decided that I should probably get the hell out of that area before Monday morning rolled around. Judging by the traffic jam that I encountered before the I-91 split this afternoon, I think I made a good call. With a 7:30am appointment tomorrow, I would have been in for some serious headaches if I had to drive out of there in the morning. There's a rest area on the southbound side of I-91 just below Exit 15. That's where I find myself this evening. My customer, however, is located off Exit 15. The process of flipping back southbound tonight and then flipping back northbound in the morning will add a few miles to the trip, but at least I'm pretty close to the consignee for the most part. Good enough for me.