geekchick | (no subject) (Reply)

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.)