Friday, March 26, 2010

Friday Afternoon Escape

I left work at 2:45 this afternoon in hopes of beating the traffic out of DC. I was trying to get to Charlottesville and wanted to take the more scenic route that runs passed James Madison's former home and through the gently sloping hills of Orange, VA. I scooted over to the HOV lanes, which would not be designated as HOV until 3:30, to avoid a slow down on the non-HOV side of 95 south. With the radio blaring I was feeling pretty smug as my eyes took note of the stopped traffic on my right.

But of course, the smugness didn't last long. Traffic in my lanes came to a standstill. It was 3:25; I was 20 miles from the Fredericksburg exit and the sign on the right was flashing, "We ticket non-HOV cars at 3:30." Knowing I wasn't going to make it another 20 miles in five minutes I looked for the next exit to get back on the right side of the highway. I considered risking the HOV ticket, but decided the probable $100 fine wasn't worth the risk.
Getting over to where I should be wasn't that easy. It seems the stopped line of traffic was really just 50 other cars trying to get off the same place as me. My luck returned when a gentleman in the car next to me rolled down his window and yelled over, "Hey are you trying to get over? I'll let you in."
Wow! "Thanks," I yelled, "have a great weekend!"

Thanks to my knight in shining armor I made it to the non-HOV side of the highway and sped along at 5 miles per hour. At that rate it was going to take me another hour to get to Fredericksburg. I should have known better...no one gets out of DC on a Friday without suffering through stopped traffic, angry horns blaring and a little bit of road rage.
I rooted around in the back seat for my Road Atlas in hopes of finding an alternative route. No luck. I decided to bail out at the next exit anyway. The GPS was in the car so maybe it was time to see just what it could do on the fly.

Thank you, GPS. You saved me from traffic torture. Within 15 minutes I was sailing along a country road...no other cars in sight. Ahead I could see a farm, with a pasture full of cows grazing in the sunlight. I smiled. I had taken the road less traveled, and was damn glad I did.

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