Epic Road Trip 2009, Part II, Review

Part II was officially declared a success as of 9:45 p.m. last night, when I returned to my humble apartment in Rochester. A few thoughts on the experience:

- I already knew that New York City freqently lies about being the "greatest city in the world" (in 'reality', something New Yorkers are only mildly aware of, it actually ranks somewhere around 700, slightly ahead of Kabul), but this trip managed to make me hate it even more.

On Saturday, as I was driving from Scranton, PA, to Long Island, I was enjoying the lack of traffic on Route 80 and looking forward to a relatively pain-free trip across the GWB and into New York. I was less than a mile from the toll booths, within sight of the bridge, when I rounded a corner and saw a parking lot had developed in front of me.

No exaggeration, it took me 50 minutes to go that last mile. Then, at the end of that hellish experience, I was still expected to pay an $8 toll. And the toll taker had the sheer audacity to say "thank you" as I paid him. I paused a moment to inform him that I hated his (explitive deleted) city and drove off.

Not to go on a rant here, but it amazes me what passes as acceptable in New York City. I don't think there is a population anywhere in the world that should tolerate that. I only had to do it once, and it made me want to blow up the GWB (I'm now popping up on every CIA, FBI, NTSB, and DHS security screen), so I have no idea how people who do that every day can handle it. There must be hallucinagens in the water to make people believe its ok to be sitting for an hour waiting to drive one mile. If the entire city sunk into the ocean tomorrow (come on, global warming!), I honestly wouldn't be even a little upset.

- That being said, it was awesome to get to see everyone who was at Michelle's, and I'm already missing them again. For a few brief hours on Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning, we re-created a little of that Fairfield magic that we left behind in apartments 304, 306, 311, 410, etc.

- And driving through Central, Southern, and Western New York is actually really nice.

- Oddly enough, the quickest route from Rochester (in one part of New York) to Long Island (another part of New York) is through 2 other states (Pennsylvania, New Jersey). So that got me thinking, where else in the country would that be true?? It would have to be on the East Coast, where states are both small and oddly shaped, and today I managed to come up with 1.5 other situations where it could happen. Try to figure it out, answer is below.

- Some statistics on the trip:
To Long Island, via Scranton: 395 miles, 8:12
Back to Rochester: 416 miles, 8:35. (I took a different, slightly longer, route)
2 cans on Vanilla Coke
1 Blue Gatorade
1 bottle of Pepsi
20 chicken nuggets (10 each from Wendy's and Burger King)

- Quick Hitters:
I stopped at a Burger King just north of Cortland, NY, on Friday night at about 10:00, and had the nicest drive-through experience of my life.

Both my trips to Long Island have involved people who live just off of route 25A. Is this the road that goes everywhere? And why is it 25A?

I also saw a sign for a Route 17K on the way home. Does that mean it's the 11th Route 17 in the state? Or is it Route 17,000?

**The Answer**
If you were driving from Wheeling, West Virginia (or somewhere else in the northwest corner of the state) to Martinsburg, West Virginia (or somewhere else in the eastern panhandle), then the quickest route would involve passing through part of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Thats the only other place this scenario would really be true.

The 0.5 is in Maryland. If you were driving from the western edge of the state, like in Oakland or Cumberland, and you were going to the south-eastern corner (like near Waldorf), then the most direct route would take you through part of West Virginia and Virginia. However, due to the lack of interstates in those parts of those states, the actual fastest route involves staying entirely within Maryland on I-68 and I-70. So that doesn't really count.

The Epic Road Trip 2009 series will continue in August with Part III (All Points West concert in Jersey City) and Part IV (New England).