(no subject)

[geekchick]

Six hours (roughly five and a half spent behind the wheel), 160 miles, and one mild sunburn later, I've done my first transport for driveforlife, Fredericksburg to Greenbelt.

Mapquest said 48 miles from home to Fredericksburg. It also said 58 minutes, which I knew wouldn't happen. I added 50% to that estimate and left the house a bit before noon. Heh. Heh heh heh. The trip down 123 to 95 was a breeze, but once I hit 95 just past Occoquan the average speed dropped to 13 mph (according to XM traffic). And it stayed that way for a very long time, past where the HOV lanes merge in. Then there were the random near-stops for no apparent reason between Triangle and Fredericksburg, which put me in to the meeting point half an hour late, and just under two hours after I started out. Guh.

The fun was not to end there. Headed back north, there was a several-mile backup because somebody'd managed to jackknife their trailer and block the two left lanes on 95 North at Woodbridge. So we ended up with another two-hour trip back up, although it helped that once the accident was passed, average speed went back up to the normal 80 or so for that stretch of road. Luckily both of the people I was meeting up with were understanding of the traffic delays, and everybody got where they needed to be safely.

You don't really want to hear whining about traffic though, you want puppy pictures. Chance is a total sweetheart, albeit a very stinky sweetheart at the moment. He has a lot of knots in his fur that will probably need to be cut out and he is, shall we say, pungent. But he's out of the shelter and alive and headed for a rescue and hopefully a home. Once he gets a much-needed bath and some grooming, he'll be gorgeous. Chance was a great passenger; once we coaxed him into the car with doggie biscuits (I think he was about done with being in the car, seeing as he'd come up from North Carolina), he spent a few minutes looking out windows and then settled down to relax and nap most of the way.


Checking out the scenery as we get ready to hit the highway. (We were stopped at a traffic light for these first two, I was not driving and snapping photos at the same time.)



Lookit the face, what a sweetheart.



See what I mean about needing a day at the doggie beauty salon?



Both of us are incredibly happy to be out of the car at this point. =)

Comments

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

You're a good person. :)

(I love you)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Aw. :-)

And what is it with that stretch of I-95 south of DC? I'm constantly hearing of overturned/jacknifed trucks and other such traffic jams in both directions.

[geminigirl]

It's funny, because when we were moving, two weeks ago, I'd budgete d what I thought was enough extra time to get through that area, knowing the traffic tends to be heavy even on a Saturay, an it still wasn't enough. No accident, no truck issue, no breakdowns, just too many cars from just south of DC on 495 almost all the way to Fredricksburg.

It delayed us enough that we ended up stopping in Savannah rather than driving all the way through to Orlando on Saturday.

[geekchick]

That's what happened here too, there was no real particular cause for the slowdown other than "lots of traffic". Guh. I really, really regretted not taking 17 down rather than 95.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

That stretch was horrible, with no accidents, six weeks ago when I drove it last... two hours to cover 27 miles.

[penk.livejournal.com]

That is a very cool project, and chance looks like (post-cleaning) a very sweet dog. Go you.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

You're a good person to do that :) And he does look like an utter sweetie, just needs a bath, that's all!