I like to drive. Some say I drive a bit faster than I should. It is a family trait. I hesitate to use the word "flaw" because I do not see it that way. But I digress.
On Tuesday 24 June I took to the road to Burlington, VT. Based upon my calculations, I believed leaving at 0600 hours would get me to Burlington no later than 1400 hours, probably sooner.
Unfortunately, I did not consider "Rush Hour." I hit rush hour in Lancaster, Reading, Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, PA. Then came the "Mother of All Rush Hours:" New York City. I crossed into New Jersey and picked up I-287. Traffic had already been bumper to bumper since shortly after crossing the Delaware River. After a few miles it was crawling at 10 mph and then just stopped. It was stopped for 20 minutes. I was not happy.
Finally, it began to move but very slowly. There was another stoppage that latest about 5 minutes. Once again traffic began to move. A few minutes later flashing lights began to come into view. I saw the reason for the long delay. A car had caught fire and now it sat along side the road burned to a crisp. It was fairly large and a total loss.
As I moved farther north traffic began to thin out and then began to get heavier going the other way. This was a sure sign I was around "The City" as we called it when I was in the photo/video business. The pace picked up.
Hours later I was approaching the Charlotte-Essex Ferry. Fate intervened. A crucial sign indicating a turn to get to the ferry slip was missing. I sailed past the intersection. Several miles later (I had some great views of Lake Champlain) two things happened almost simultaneously. One was the realization that I had missed a turn or two to get to the ferry. The other was seeing that the Low Fuel light was lit.
As this car does not have a display that indicates how many miles you can go until "Empty" I have learned how to do some quick calculations. The odometer tracks two individual trips and I always use one of them to record mileage from my last fill up. I did some quick math and realized that I did not have enough gas to make it to Burlington. Now, I was looking for a gas station. The ferry slip could wait.
As luck would have it, I managed to find the most expensive gas around ($4.439 a gallon). Following that, I found the ferry and the rest of the trip was uneventful. While it took far longer than expected, I was finally in Burlington and quickly remembered why I like going to TCA events: I began to see TCA members that I had not seen in a long time.
