The Drive Through Hell

We visited the main LL Bean store this morning for one last round. We could have walked around the store for hours, even if we didn't buy anything. There's just so much interesting stuff. Then we went down the street to the LL Bean outlet to see if we could find some more can't-live-without-that deals. We did.

At about noon we finally left Freeport in a pouring rain. Our plan was to detour through Milford, CT to meet Dorcas' friend Sylvia and her sister Liz for dinner. This took us through some of the more populous corridors in the northeast. After we got into Massachusetts, we experienced a series of unfortunate traffic episodes. You would expect the traffic in the commuting zones around Boston and New York City to be congested on a Friday during rush hour, but I think this was way beyond the norm. We heard truckers using words on the CB that embarrassed even other truckers. First, we had intended to avoid the Mass Turnpike by taking I-290, but there was a flashing message saying that I-290 was blocked by an accident, "SEEK ALT ROUTE". OK, we'll take the turnpike and pay the toll. When entering the Mass Turnpike from I-485, there was a solid wall of cars being funneled down through the toll plaza where you pick up an entry ticket. We were forced through a gate for EasyPass vehicles, and consequently didn't pick up an entry ticket. This caused us to pay a much higher toll when we checked out at the other end. Bummer. I did subsequently learn that a 33,000 pound motorhome driven by an irate driver with an attitude, can basically go anywhere he wants to. Kinda like Dale Sr. back when he went around and around on Sunday afternoons. After clearing that mess, we came to a standstill on I-91 south of Hartford. Some semi-trucks got into it, got sideways and spilled some fuel. All lanes were blocked in both directions. We actually came along just about the time things started moving, but it was 5 mph for about 1.5 hours. We finally arrived in Milford where Sylvia and Liz treated us to dinner at Stonebridge Restaurant. It was an excellent meal and a wonderful end to what had otherwise been a very stressful day. We left Milford about 10:00 and planned to pull off in an hour or two. The shortest route was I-95 through NYC, but the way our day had gone, we had no intention of going any closer to the city. Plan B was to cut cross country to I-84 at Danbury. Back roads, late evening, no problem, right? Wrong. On route 25 about 5 miles before intersecting I-84, we came up on an accident between two cars that had occurred only minutes before. The cars were still steaming and smoking and folks were calling the police. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. Unfortunately, the road was totally blocked and we could not back up or turn around. So we turned off the engine and sat. It took almost 2 hours for the police, FD and the tow truck guy to get things cleared up. By this time it was tomorrow. We drove another two hours and pulled off at a rest area on I-84 near Middletown, NY. Surprisingly, we slept rather well. I was just glad this slab of highway was behind us.