Finally On The Way

We finally got off to Florida today. It was about 11° F this morning, but we decided to leave anyway. It took a couple of hours to reload Speedy and close up the house once again, but we were off just before 10 AM, missing rush-hour traffic.

As is our choice, we went out the Mass Pike to Sturbridge and down I-84. We took a new routing via I-691 that avoided Hartford, then back onto I-84 to I-684 through White Plains, NY (perpetually under construction), and over the Tappan-Zee bridge. As we were going to take the coastal route this time, we went down the Garden State Parkway and then the New Jersey Turnpike to Delaware.

At this point, we tried something new. I'd read in one of the various Roadtrek online news groups of taking US 301 from Delaware, across the Eastern Shore, crossing the Chesapeake near Annapolis, then down the Western Shore into Virginia, finally rejoining I-95 just north of Richmond, VA. This avoided both Baltimore and Washington, DC. US 301 in Maryland was described as a four-lane highway all the way to I-95. So, we decided to give it a go.

I'd say it was a mixed result. It did allow us to avoid the traffic through Baltimore and Washingtom after dark, but it wasn't exactly clear sailing. We may have gotten off I-95 a bit early, choosing to start down the Eastern Shore via MD 1, then over to US 301. This took us through heavy traffic and quite a few lights at first, and then right through the center of Middletown, before joining 301. After we cleared Middletown and its suburbs, the road across the Eastern Shore was an almost empty highway all the way to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. On the other side of the bridge, however, were a series of  towns where the highway, which was not limited-access, was bounded by long strips of malls and stores, with the attendent traffic lights. We would just get up to 60 mph, stop at a light, then repeat ... through most of the Western Shore of Maryland. Once we reached Virginia, it was, once again, an empty highway with only a few lights all way to I-95.

I doubt we saved any time, with the areas of traffic lights, but there was no traffic for most of the drive and we avoided Baltimore and Washington. I expect it would have been a scenic drive for at least part of the way, if we hadn't been driving at night.

We ended the day at Ashland, Virginia, pulling into a Cracker Barrel at about 9:30 PM. This was only a half hour before closing, but they were extremely gracious, seating us right in front of the fireplace. Of course, we were the only customers in the restaurant. With their permission, we parked Speedy in a quiet part of their lot and called it a night.