Long trip and pricey gas

Monday, 4:22 pm

Mar

24

2008

Yesterday was a long day. The lad and I didn’t get started as early as we’d intended, not leaving here until a little after noon. But the roads were reasonably clear most of the way of the way down to Easton. Things were a little congested around New York City, but not too bad. And we didn’t make any wrong turns. We arrived on campus just a little past 7 PM.

After unloading the car I had another tour of the dorm room—his roommate was there and they were both quite proud of their decorating skills. They do have a nice room. It’s very large by most dorm room standards and they even have an L shaped wing in it. That’s reserved for the entertainment center. Yeah, an entertainment center with HDTV, DVD player, stereo equipment, and a futon and a fridge. Not a bad set-up. When we arrived the roommate had the Discovery Channel on. He’s really a cutie. I like him.

After all the lad’s stuff was stowed, the tour completed, and hugs dispensed to both boys, I took my leave. It was 8:30 PM when I hit the road. It was going to be a long drive and I didn’t expect to get home until around 2:30 AM. I couldn’t find anything on the radio that interested me much, either. NPR stations in that neck of the woods have skimpy offerings on Sunday nights. Saturday night is a much better radio night, I think. I ended up listening to Delilah and sappy love songs most of the way home.

The traffic was horrible, as anticipated. People were returning from a holiday weekend in droves. It got me to thinking that the route I usually take up through New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut was going to be pretty unpleasant with four lanes of virtually rush hour traffic. So, I made a spot decision to just take the NY State Thruway north to Albany and hop on to the Mass Turnpike and drive across the length of the state to pick up 495 the rest of the way. I had done that once before and it didn’t take me any longer. It seems as if it is the long way around, but I haven’t actually sat down to calculate the mileage.

That turned out to be a good idea. Hardly anyone was on the NY State Thruway or the Mass Pike except truckers. I don’t mind driving with trucks. They’re good people and play nice on the road. We all sailed along at a good clip and when the trucks slowed down, I slowed down. They know where the state troopers are hiding.

Even with one bathroom break and a stop to get some gas and coffee, I still pulled in the driveway at 2:34 AM. Pretty good, I think. This might be a better route in the future.

One observation on gas prices...Yikes! I thought they were a little high here, but nothing like what I found in Pennsylvania and New York. I ended up paying $3.45/gal in PA and $3.59/gal in New York. Around here it’s still $3.14. That makes a bit of a difference in the total tally for a fill-up. Gads, I’m glad I don’t have to drive very much. Both times I stopped to get gas, a much larger vehicle had been at the pump before me and their gas bills were $58 and $72. Ow. My little car ate a total of $66 for the round trip with enough gas left to get me through the rest of this week and probably most of next week. Bless my little car.