In NJ *sigh*

I survived the drive into NJ and am currently at my Mother-in-laws house (which is where my Daughter resides) between Routes 27 and 1. Everything was fine coming east on I-80 until I got around Stroudsburg. Then things started to build slightly but it was still moving until I hit the hills in Allamuchy. There, for some reason, there is always one tractor trailer that doesn't know how to use the truck lane on the far right. Invariably a slightly (but not much) faster semi pulls out to the left of slowpoke #1 and they block two lanes of the four lanes. Today I hit the jackpot. Three semis and a charter bus from Peoria were strung across ALL the lanes of traffic and creeping up the hill at 40 miles an hour.

Once passed the blockade, things went well for a bit until I fell behind a truck laying down a smoke screen that would have done my Dad proud. (He drove a smoke truck in the North Africa and Italy campaigns during WWII. His smoke obscured the movements of the allied troops from enemy eyes.) When I finally caught up to this "smoker" I saw it wasn't exhaust but a locked up axle or something. So much smoke was coming from one of the rear axles that I felt sure that if he stopped he might have burst into flame.

Once at Mother-in-Law's, I met up with my daughter and we drove over to the car dealership on Route 22 to close the deal on a used Yaris. Of course it was at 4:00 PM in the afternoon and the rush hour had begun. The traffic was moving but very heavy and we had to make a U-turn across the broad island of Rt. 22 to change direction from westbound to eastbound. The number of cars I saw in the 5 minutes I sat at in the U-turn lane far surpassed what I see in a week out in PA or even in the four hour drive between the Aerie and the Bolt Hole.

We succeeded in making it to the dealer and spent nearly three hours filling out paperwork. That was both a bad thing and a good thing. It was bad because I can't believe it takes that long for them to finalize all the paperwork involved in selling a car and taking one as trade-in. Yet taking so long was a good thing because it meant that most of the traffic was over when we left to return to the Mother-in-Law's for dinner.

Tomorrow I get to make the 4 1/2 hour drive back to the Aerie but I'll be doing it as soon as the sun comes up and I can get a cup of coffee. With luck I'll avoid the heavy traffic from the holiday goers. The Mother-in-Law has to await the arrival of her grandson (my nephew) and his girlfriend before they can drive out to the Aerie. They should be able to head west around 1 PM. My daughter will be unable to come out for Thanksgiving dinner because of her work schedule.