OK, so the mrs and i took the day to visit baltimore. it's day-trip material given where i live and how i like to drive. :>
incidentally: this is why i wasn't around yesterday, folks. :>
so we're there, we see the aquarium (which apparently we'd forgotten we've already visited), had the world's best crab cake (faidley's, at lexington market) and generally had a lot of fun.
until we decided to come home.
we parked outside of town and took the subway to where we were going. that worked out well, but as we wandered about inner harbor, we got progressively farther from the subway stations. after dinner, we decided to hail a taxi.
now, if the map calls all the subway stations "metro", you would think that a cabbie who drives in the city knows they're called "metro", wouldn't you?
but no--instead, the cabbie, w/out seeking confirmation, drops us off at the light rail station. which was a good 20 min walk.
so about 30 mins after, thanks to a friendly transit cop who was able to help us figure out the various mass transit options in the city of baltimore, we finally get to our car. we're underway, the asphalt is disappearing quickly beneath the wheels at around 75 mph...when a veritable sea of red lights fills my field of vision.
brakelights. it's all brakelights. and not a single one of 'em is moving.
i'm driving on a major freaking interstate, and the powers that be have decided, "hey, i have a fantastic idea: let's close a 3 lane interstate down to one lane!"
happily, that only killed 15 mins by my calculations.
what really honked me off though was when once we were out of maryland, the same damned thing happened in pennsylvania--just over the damned border! and in PA, they ran it like that a good 10-15 miles!
OK, i just needed to get that out of my system.
i'm doing much better now. :>
but i'll be damned if i'm getting back in a car--any car--today!
ed
silverwhisper posted on Aug 30, 2007
| views: 532
Comments
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the_infernal_optimist said on Aug 30, 2007....
Eeeeewwwwww, yuck. I loathe being stuck in traffic (and that's as a passenger 99.99% of the time).
It would be nice if they could complete all road work between the hours of, say, 1-5am. The DOT in this state is fricking ridiculous, so we get snared aplenty when we're going anywhere further than 20 miles from home.
Yay for good crab cake? (though I have to protest "good" and seafood of any kind going in the same sentence, unless there's a negative in there somewhere)
~Infernal
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namyogrl said on Aug 30, 2007....
Ewwww I hate to drive ... last weekend my honey decided to drivefrom LA to just north of Santa Barbara. On the way there no trafficbut retuning on Sun. around 2pm the freeway was stopped wetraveled at 15mph for over 2HOURS!!! UGHHHHHH. It ruined areally great getaway. -
rightwingwizard said on Aug 30, 2007....
silver: Anyone who voluntarily drives anywhere in the northeast corridor during the months of aug tru oct are a bit off anyway, imho. Road projects everywhere and everyone's in a hurry. I lived for 10 yrs in Philly area, stayed off the major routes as much as possible in late summer &early fall.rww -
pickersplock said on Aug 30, 2007....
The lady at AAA told me, "There are two seasons in the northeast, winter and roadwork."You have my sympathy.Just be glad Mr. Plock wasn't in the car with you! -
beyondtheveil said on Aug 30, 2007....
When we visited daughter while she was attending college in Houston, Southwest Air landed at Hobby field. On the drive to North Houston we passed the International airport. It had taken forever because every road under construction. I told my wife, the next time we come here, I want a flight from Hobby to International. -
silverwhisper said on Aug 30, 2007....
infernal: hey, that crab cake was absolutely amazing! what do you have against seafood? i wasn't aware that DOT is so gorrammed malignant everywhere!
namyogrl: welcome to my blog and thank you! 2 hours at 15 mph? that's criminal!
rww: i wasn't aware that you lived there. btw, you'll be happy to know that construction is finally done on the schuylkill. :>
pickers: heh...that lady at the AAA is very smart. :>
beyond: heh...believe me, i know the feeling well! :>
ed -
Mamie said on Aug 30, 2007....
On behalf of the state of Pennsylvania, may I apologize? We don't know how to organize road construction yet...we think that we might as well go at it for more than 10 miles because it is good for our pharma companies that make blood pressure meds.Plus, if you go from a lot of lanes to one in a real short span, you can see who the nice drivers are (every other state)...as they get in line immediately. The people from New York and New jersey love this b/c then they can just shoot up the outside lane. The PA people? We just make all these ridiculous hand and arm motions so that you all can watch us as we melt down right in the middle of two lanes. Honk, honk!!:))) -
travelr712 said on Aug 30, 2007....
to quote bill cosby, 'we all just set our breaks, got out of our cars and turned it into a parking lot!' -
Zayda said on Aug 30, 2007....
You know, ever since I drove the 22 hours from Texas to Virginia, being stuck in traffic doesn't bother me. -
MissMimi said on Aug 30, 2007....
I don't mind being stuck in traffic either. I'm very rarely in a hurry to get anywhere, so I just crank up the music and hang out.B on the other hand is a raving lunatic in traffic and he's not even the one behind the wheel. He thoroughly enjoys passenger seat driving. -
OutOfIdeas said on Aug 30, 2007....
SW I truly empathize! We live in northern Cal and on the weekends my husband for some reason always makes plans for us in SF, so what should be a 30min drive can end up taking almost 2 hours!
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minniemouse said on Aug 30, 2007....
Too bad I didn't know you were going Silver! I could have told you us "Baltomorons" (lol) dont call the metro the metro! Why would we go and do a silly thing like that? Its called the subway. Silly Silver! I have no idea why he took you to the light rail though!!!
You went to the best place in town for the crabcake...kudos....only place better is O'brecki's, but that would have been way out of your way....cab driver probably would have dropped you off at the White House! LOL
Traffic.....what can I say, hon? It sucks.... ;-) MM
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hotaka said on Aug 30, 2007....
Ugh! I once entered an expressway in Nagano but accidently turned the wrong way. It was no biggy I figured. I would just drive the ten minutes to the next interchange, exit and pay the fair and get back on and go the right way. But after three minutes of driving the traffic came to a standstill. Theye were doing road construction and one of the two lanes was closed. They also closed both lanes anytime a big truck had to turn around or some other equipment had to move out. It took me 45 minutes to drive the last seven minutes worth. At least coming back the road was clear. But after two days of hiking and with a five hour drive ahead of me I did not need that additional time sitting in traffic and wondering when I was going to get to turn around.
Welcome home!
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silverwhisper said on Aug 31, 2007....
mamie: ah, so that's the purpose of all those hand gestures?! :D
traveler: that probably would've been more fun!
super z: now now, i've seen you rant about traffic, you know... :p
mimi: what can i say, i'm just not as patient as you. :p
out of ideas: egads, i've been in SF traffic and i completely understand!
mm: i didn't know that's where you were! and damn, those faidley's crab cakes...wow! where's o'brecki's?
hotaka: damn, now i know why japanese cars are invariably more nimble than US cars! :D ugh, but that had to suck great big donkey balls!
ed -
the_infernal_optimist said on Aug 31, 2007....
ed: Re: seafood - I'm not sure why, really, but I have a strong aversion to eating anything that swam/scuttled in life. *shrug* Maybe it has something to do with having grown up an hour or so from the ocean. Seafood was everywhere. I just don't care for much ocean-related anyway, probably because I got burnt out on that whole experience (though to the best of my knowledge, I've never liked fish/seafood in general). Up until about three years ago, I could occasionally handle tuna salad, but that's it.
And yeah, it seems like road construction work is handled poorly pretty much everywhere.
~Infernal
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Zayda said on Aug 31, 2007....
Silver--You've seen me rant about idiot drivers. Traffic, not so much. -
skald said on Aug 31, 2007....
I´m glad I´m not driving over there. Hope you feel well now. -
silverwhisper said on Aug 31, 2007....
infernal: you're weird, infernal! :p
super z: fair point.
skald: heh...it's always an adventure, i'll say that. :>
ed -
the_infernal_optimist said on Aug 31, 2007....
You just now figured this out? :-D
~Infernal
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minniemouse said on Aug 31, 2007....
silver.....I spelled it wrong! LOL....us Baltomorons don't now how to spell either! Its Obrycki's and its on Pratt St......They are so good, that they will Fed-ex their crab cakes anywhere!!! :-) Minnie -
carmachu said on Aug 31, 2007....
Welcome to my world. Try it in a 6 ton truck....
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silverwhisper said on Sep 02, 2007....
infernal: far from it, it's merely the most recent reminder. :>
mm: on pratt? i might well have walked past it. ?!
carm: um...ick, man.
ed
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