I slept in a bit today, because I figured I would leave around noon and just toodle on up to Boston. I didn’t have to be there at any particular time, so I took it easy this morning and lounged a bit.
Okay, not really. I lounged for about 20 minutes or so, then got cracking.
Google Maps said it would take 5:45 to get to Boston. I laughed. I’ve made this drive before, and no way will it only take 5:45.
The Quest For Gas
I wanted to gas up at the nearest Costco, because in NC, they’re the cheapest places to get gas.
“Okay Google, where’s the nearest Costco?” 10 minutes later I got there… and they didn’t sell gas. Doh.
“Okay Google, where’s the nearest truck stop?” 10 minutes later, a closed onramp and a long detour later, they were out of gas. *Facepalm.*
“Okay Google, where’s the nearest gas station?” 10 minutes later and I finally found an establishment willing to sell me gas!
Yeah, it was that kind of day.
The George Washington Bridge is Never Green
I was listening to a lot of traffic info on the way up the NJ Turnpike, because I know how NY/NJ traffic is–it changes from minute to minute from smooth as butter to clogged up and not moving at all. “The GWB is green, the GWB is green,” I kept hearing that, so I decided to take the GWB across the Hudson… and hit a 30-minute delay right at the toll booth. Yay.
The whole time I’m driving, I’m also fighting the new version of Google Maps. The old version would let me seek alternate routes. The new version does not. I don’t like this improvement at all, but since I have a new phone, I can’t roll it back.
The phone keeps telling me to take weird routes I’m not used to taking, and I can’t tell if I’m actually going to save any time at all. It’s really frustrating and annoying. I don’t want to take the Merrit across Connecticut. It looks like a big red line of non-moving traffic from the map and from behind the wheel.
So I moved back to I-95. It didn’t move much, either, and Maps was still trying to get me to go back the Merrit. Ugh.
Before I left I-95, I pulled off at a service area to get gas and some food.
I finally got off on to I-91 and things were moving again, but this jaunt across Connecticut probably took 3.5 hours, when it should take two, max. The traffic was horrible on all of the east-west roads.
I got to the Mass Pike, and everything was smooth again, but the drivers were all crazy. And just as I’m pulling into Boston, the GPS drops, and stops giving me directions, and I wind up who-knows-where. When I got out from underground, it kicked in again and figured it out, but it was annoying to have to guess what it wanted to do next.
So my 5:45 trip took about 8 hours.
The hotel is nice. Expensive, but nice.