George and I left Michael's house in Alexandria at 8 a.m. on Saturday, and drove 519 miles to our house and arrived at 6:30 p.m. A very fast drive considering that it is one of the most heavily traveled days of the year. We came to a complete stop twice on the dreaded New Jersey Turnpike, but then the traffic cleared and we zoomed through the tolls with our new EZPass, and we zoomed down the Garden State Parkway, across Connecticut and into Massachusetts. Even the Mass Pike was no problem. During one of the rest stops, I had to wait in a long line of women to get to the ladie's room, but the line moved relatively quickly, we grabbed a Starbucks and were off again.
We didn't stop for dinner, but had a snack of cheese and crackers in the car. I'll be cleaning up the crumbs for days.
We had a great Thanksgiving Dinner, made some new friends, and had a wonderful time in Washington. On the day after Thanksgiving, George and I braved the crowds and went to Tyson's Mall in Arlington VA, and even there, we didn't have any problems. As we left the mall at noon, the crowds were coming, and we were having trouble walking the mall, so we went to the car the got out of Dodge.
We are very grateful that our ride there and home was so easy. One year, we got to the New Jersey Turnpike on Saturday, and found that it was stop and go all the way, adding at least two hours to our trip. This year, maybe because of EZPass, we made it there and home without any trouble at all: 519 miles exactly.
Now it's a downhill slide to Christmas!
Have a great day.
