Yesterday’s 13-hour drive from Smithfield Virginia back to Roslindale MA took us through some amazing countryside (with the exception of, I’m sorry, Connecticut. When you’re that close to home, having to go through Connecticut is just annoying.) including the opportunity to travel over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
23-miles of bridges and tunnels, this thing connects Virginia’s Eastern
Shore with the Virginia mainland at Virginia Beach near Norfolk. More importantly, it saved us from having to go through Richmond at rush hour and eliminated D.C. and Baltimore from our trip entirely. Quite possibly shaving about three hours off the trip altogether.
Naturally I made The Girl drive the whole length of the thing, given my slight fear of bridges (tunnels, for some reason I’m fine with. Go figure.)
The whole trip, I’m delighted to say, was completely uneventful. For those of you keeping scorecards at home and wanting to know the exact route… we took Route 13 up the eastern shore of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, crossed over the Delaware Memorial Bridge on I-95, manuevered our way onto the Jersey Turnpike which we take until almost the very second you’re on the George Washington Bridge, but then we scooted over to the Fort Lee exit and hopped on the Palisades Parkway. Take that to 287, over the Tappen Zee Bridge (which I think, for the first time in my life had NO back-up delays) then onto Route 15 (Merritt Parkway) up to I-91, through Hartford, onto I-84 until you hit the Mass Pike and then a series of rotaries until you’re in Roslindale.
When we got home, our friends had a dinner laid out for us on the patio complete with mixed drinks… and they… and our neighbors clapped for us. We gave them fresh corn we had picked up in Virginia. And then we all watched the Red Sox game.
I don’t know why I insist on leaving home periodically. I like it here best of all.
