Notes from the road

I generally try to avoid Interstate 95 at all costs, but as I headed south on Friday afternoon, I noticed traffic wasn't all that bad. In fact, the worst part of my trip was on I-84 from Connecticut to Newberg Newburgh, N.Y; it took me nearly 2 hours to get that far, almost an hour longer than usual. I did decide to give New York City a wide berth, and I hooked up with 95 just south of the city in New Jersey. I mention this only because I spent a good portion of Friday pestering people about driving from Connecticut to D.C. So, now you know how I got here.

A few observations:

* Having lived in states without tolls for the past 8 years, I forgot that going any distance on 95 can be costly. I also resolved to get myself an EZ-Pass tag ASAP. I also thought that tolls in New York were bad, but I learned that Delaware is king here. In the 15 minutes it takes to get across the state on 95, there are 2 toll plazas that will set you back a total of $6. I'm guessing that since Delaware is a wee state, these tolls make up a significant portion of the highway budget. Either that, or they just want to make people actually stop in the state for a minute or two, instead of just breezing through.

* Also, I had not eaten at a highway service plaza for the better part of a decade. When I was a lad and the family took a trip to Washington, we stopped at a service plaza with a Roy Rogers. I remember this because not long after we departed the restaurant, we had to pull the car over to the side of the highway so I could vomit out the door.

So of course when I saw a plaza with a Roy Rogers on the Jersey Turnpike, I had to stop and grab dinner. (It also was getting close to 8 p.m. and I hadn't eaten all day, so maybe the trip wasn't 100 percent motivated by nostalgia.) In any event, I observed that the people who stop to eat at fast-food joints in highway service plazas probably shouldn't be eating anything resembling fast food. It was a pretty compelling illustration of U.S. obesity statistics. So, I had 2 pieces of fried chicken, a biscuit and a Coke, figuring I've still got 70 or 80 pounds to play with.

* My temporary housing is quite nice -- and it should be, given what the company is shelling out for this place. If anyone wanted to save large corporations money, they should tell them to pay market rate for stuff like this. It's not quite the military spending $500 on a hammer, but it's close.

* After driving for nearly 8 hours Friday, I decided the wise thing to do Saturday was to get right back in the car and take the 100-mile round trip to Baltimore to see the NCAA men's lacrosse semifinals. They set an attendance record with 52,000. My alma mater came up short, albeit in thrilling fashion.

* I moaned about the severe lack in dining options in Connecticut, but I'm off to a flying start in Virginia. On my way to Baltimore, I noticed a banh mi shop in a strip mall near my apartment. On the way home, I stopped in. The sandwiches were $2.50 each on the menu, so I decided to order 2 just in case they were on the small side. They weren't, so I got 2 meals for $5. There's also a pho place in this mall, so I'll have to try that place, too.

That's all for now; more to come, I'm sure...