April 4, 2005 Archives

We had to make a rush trip to Cherry Hill, NJ earlier today. Google's new maps program says the round trip was about 354 miles. That seems right. It's about the limit for driving and getting anything accomplished before heading home.

Luckily for us traffic wasn't too bad. We missed morning rush going into New York City and afternoon drive coming home. The only real snag on the trip was here in Connecticut, around 6:30 PM, traveling through Fairfield County.

I have no idea why went went slowly... but it did. It was worse than anything we saw on the Cross Bronx Expressway, if you can believe that.

I would guess a large park of our traffic free passage had to do with the advent of E-ZPass. Having this RFID tag in your car eliminates making the trip unnoticed, but it sure does speed things along.

The toll booths near Meadowlands Stadium were always a choke point. With E-ZPass we breezed through at highway speed. Same thing for the George Washington Bridge.

My only concern was a cryptic message at NJ Turnpike exit 4, when we saw a sign that told us to go - though our tag hadn't been read. Honest officer, it was on the windshield.

It will be a surprise to find out what the toll actually is. I have no idea. It wasn't posted anywhere.

This is a trip we used to make all the time while Helaine's parents were alive.

I remember stopping on the Jersey Turnpike, driving our Mazda 929. When Steffie was an infant, the 929's trunk made the perfect open air changing table.

The rest areas are still named after famous New Jersey residents like Joyce Kilmer, Vince Lombardi, Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Edison.

Is Grover Cleveland's family proud to know that this former president's most conspicuous achievement in the 21st century is having people mention his name when they need to make a pit stop¹? It would probably be defensible if he were still on the $1000 bill.

Speaking of the rest areas, it looks like they've been rebuilt, adding additional outward ugliness to what were ugly buildings to begin with. There are flowers near the sink (and loud music) in the mens room. The restaurant section is a medley of your favorite fast food joints in a food court arrangement.

New Jersey continues to lead the nation in "Full Service" gas stations. From a National Review commentary:

It slowed us down, as we had to wait after the car was filled for the attendant to remove the hose, take my credit card, run it through the machine and bring the receipt back for me to sign. On the other hand, gas was $2.03 9/10 per gallon, a full 30¢ cheaper than here and I got my windshield washed!

Some parts of the trip remain the same. It is astounding to see the dozens and dozens of warehouses and distribution centers that line the Turnpike. New Jersey is the Garden State. It might as well be the Distribution State as well.

There is a derelict ferry, the Mary Murray, just east of the highway in the Raritan River and visible from the northbound lanes. I started taking this trip when I lived in Philadelphia in the mid-70s. It was there then... a derelict then.

There was a rumor that it would be turned into a restaurant. Thirty years is a long time to wait for a table.

If there was one thing that made our trip go a little faster, it was the opening of the baseball season. The Phillies have moved from WPEN (a station with a bad signal, and me as a former employee) to WPHT (the former WCAU). Now they have a 50,000 watt clear channel behemoth, though at one time it was rumored to be the only 50 kw clear in the nation to get "--" in the ratings.

The Phillies beat the Washington Nationals. That means Helaine's prediction of a 0-162 season is already dashed.

¹ - I know next to nothing about Cleveland, so I took a quick trip to Wikipedia to bone up. He actually was a pretty interesting guy with a Woody Allen like marriage!