I'm Home

[fabrisse]

Yesterday, I got up just before 4 a.m. to make the 5 a.m. train to Boston. It was a little late, so I had to take a taxi to Somerville to pick up the U-Haul. They tried to "upgrade" me to a 17' truck. I insisted on the 10' I'd reserved.

Now, for those of you who jaywalk ... If you see a truck with U-Haul written on it, do you cross in front of it? Because several people nearly won Darwin awards by doing just that with this amateur truck driver.

Any way, I made it to eanja's in time for the movers. They got me loaded up in an hour flat. As a matter of fact, the last box just made it in before the torrential downpour.

eanja was also kind enough to lend me a padlock for the drive.

Most of today was uneventful, other than the fact that I hate driving. However, one part does deserve mention.

The Merritt Parkway in Connecticut is beautiful. It also doesn't allow commercial vehicles. Blame it on fatigue, but it didn't occur to me that my U-Haul was a commercial vehicle until I was already on The Merritt Parkway. The reason it doesn't allow commercial vehicles is the bridges are low. Most of them are over 11 feet, if just barely, which led me to the interesting, to me, observation that the apartments I had in Brussels and my apartment in Mannheim had higher ceilings than these bridge clearances. The final bridge in Connecticut, however, had a clearance of 9'9" -- gulp. I looked at my shadow on the wall of the bridge, held my breath, and cleared it. I have no idea by how little. My knuckles are still white.

After crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge and paying for the privilege of leaving New Jersey, I had to cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge and go through the Fort McHenry tunnel. These experiences, especially the bridge, were frightening enough that I have come to the conclusion the tolls go in the wrong direction. I think they should pay me to go through/over their scary roadworks. The other way around makes no sense.

Am going to bed early tonight.

Comments

[aurora-novarum.livejournal.com]

Now see, we could've caravaned if you'd gone a few days earlier. LOL

Hope you didn't have to do it in the rain. :-p

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

GAH! Am glad you're back home safe and relatively sound. *hugs* I don't mind driving but I cannot drive when it's raining hard. I tense up and can't see squat. I hope the truck had decent air conditioning.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

No. I was lucky, clear if cloudy weather the whole way.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

I sweat in places I didn't know I could sweat. But overall, not too horrific.

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

At least you were able to go help, so that offsets the scary. :)

[eanja]

Good to know you got home safe!

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Hope the move went smoothly.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I just made that trip recently, except we go the Sawmill Parkway through Connecticut. I think there are no tolls that way (until you get to the Tappan Zee Bridge), but there are a few stoplights and the road itself is kind of scary (narrow lanes, lots of hills and curves). No trucks allowed, but I don't know if you could drive a small U-Haul. My husband drives his pickup truck that way, but I'm guessing if the U-Haul wasn't allowed on the Merritt Parkway, it's probably not allowed on the Sawmill Parkway either. (And I have no clue if one road could be substituted for the other anyway. hehe I just know we always end up at the Tappan Zee Bridge.)

After we cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge, we head down the Delaware/Maryland/VA peninsula. I hate that road. It seems to take longer than the rest of the trip together as there's no major highway most of the way--lots of stoplights, lots of traffic. It's not scary, but I almost prefer scary to boring. *g*

I'm glad you arrived home safely.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

But if you take the Delmarva penninsula, you have to face THE BRIDGE. I will drive three states out of the way to avoid the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I love my cousin, and I'll go out her way in September or October (to help celebrate her 102nd birthday), but Damn THE BRIDGE is terrifying.

I take it you live farther down? Or are able to take the Bay Bridge-Tunnel which, while much longer, is not as scary to me.