Wednesday, November 21, 2007

The combination to a safe? Or just our way home?

Just heard a stat on Nightline that several million Americans traveled 50 miles or more to reach their Thanksgiving destination. I immediately put my hand up.

I cussed at, gestured at and got pissed off by what seemed to be the remainder of the American population, which all seemed headed from Alexandria, Va. to Lehighton, Pa. (via Ashburn, Va.), just like I was.

Virtually every road, at some point, was a mess. Traffic bogged down 75 percent of the trip from Northern Virginia to past Harrisburg, Pa. The rest of the trip was hampered by fog that worsened as we got closer to Lehighton.

In all, it was a four-hour trip that took five. (And if you count the hours I was working, it took more like nine hours. And that doesn't include the inconvience of having to call two coaches back because I couldn't really interview them while driving in the fog, working on a preview for a game I'll never get to see.)

So, yeah, Wednesday was fun.

In bite-by-bite segments, broken down by road traveled:

I-395, Alexandria, Va. to Springfield, Va.

I-495 (inner loop), Springfield, Va. to Tysons Corner, Va.

VA-267 (Dulles Toll Road), Tysons Corner, Va. to Dulles, Va.

VA-28, Dulles, Va. to Ashburn, Va.

It was at this point we made our first stop. I needed to get some information for my Redskins page; the Redskins went back to work today in preparation for Sunday's game in Tampa. My wife did some running around while I did some work.

Once I finished, we were back on the road, headed for Pennsylvania. The rest of our trip:

VA-28, Ashburn, Va. to Sterling, Va. (Near the end of Rt. 28, we passed the building that house the regional air traffic control center - Washington Center.)

VA-7, Sterling, Va. to Leesburg, Va.

US-15, Leesburg, Va. to near Mechanicsburg, Pa.

I-76 (Pennsylvania Turnpike), near Mechanicsburg, Pa. to near Westfield Terrace, Pa.

I-83, near Westfield Terrace, Pa. to Colonial Park, Pa.

I-81, Colonial Park, Pa. to near Lickdale, Pa.

I-78, near Lickdale, Pa. to Hamburg, Pa.

PA-61, Hamburg, Pa. to Orwigsburg, Pa.

PA-895, Orwigsburg, Pa. to New Ringgold, Pa.

PA-443, New-Ringgold, Pa. to Lehighton, Pa.

Across the bridge, and finally a quarter-mile stretch on PA-248 to my old neighborhood.

So there you have it. Recapping: 395, 495, 267, 28, 7, 15, 76, 83, 81, 78, 61, 895, 443, 248.

That would be one hell of a safe.

1 comment:

Stormy said...

That sucks man. At least you made it & are spending Thanksgiving with your family.

I hope you have a great day pal!