Dispatches from the road: A surprising day on the NJ Turnpike

I long ago lost track of how many times I’ve driven up and down the entire length of the New Jersey Turnpike from the Del Mem Br (as the signs in Delaware read) to the George Washington Bridge. It is pretty much always an occasion for dread, but never more so than when we have to leave Delaware mid-afternoon, which we did Monday because Tommy had a field trip that we didn’t want him to miss. We picked him up at school at 2:00, which positioned us to arrive in the metro NYC area at 4:30, right at the start of rush hour. Of course, we could have waited to leave until Tuesday morning, but that would mean sacrificing our ritual hotel stop in Northampton, Massachusetts which is even more fun in November than the summer because really, what could be better than going swimming (in the indoor pool of course) when it’s freezing outside?

So Matt and I girded our loins. We picked up subs and told the boys that we would be eating dinner in the car. Barring an emergency bathroom break, we planned to stop only once, at the Vince Lombardi Rest Area (a sentimental favorite of Matt’s since he is a lifelong Green Bay Packers fan). We stocked the car with all of the usual books and toys and crayons and pretzels and juice boxes and dried fruit and warned the kids severely that we were in it for the long haul. We hoped that we would make it in seven, maybe eight hours.

And you know what? Sometimes the travel gods are kind. There was no wait at the tolls, we watched the Empire State Building as its lights turned on against a dusky winter sky, and we only made one extra stop to pee. Just shy of five and a half hours after we left, we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel. Check in took two minutes and the kids actually got a dip in the pool before bed. Matt turned the TV on just as the Saints kicked off against the Packers on Monday Night Football. I honestly feel like I won the travel lottery.

I write this post only to prove that not all Thanksgiving travel tales are horror stories. Maybe I’ll start an entirely new genre.