White Knuckle Easter Ride on the Parkway

Traffic might be a little lighter than usual on the Garden State Parkway today with a number of people taking the day or week off. After all it is spring recess with many if not most schools closed for the week. 

I would imagine for commuters any day they don’t have to travel northbound in the morning and southbound later is a good day.  On Easter Sunday like many others we took to the road traveling to Glen Rock which is exit 160 off the Parkway and as it usually does the trip made me even more thankful for my less than 10 minute commute to work each day.

As you would expect there was a lot of holiday traffic but we moved pretty good until hitting mile marker 142 and we crawled for the next 12 miles or so.  There were no accidents and no apparent reason for the delay. I guess it was simply a matter of too much congestion.  What I always wonder about is why does it all of a sudden open up. One minute you’re crawling and the next you’re doing 65?  It took us about 20 minutes longer than it should have to arrive at our destination which I guess as New Jersey goes is not all that bad.

The trip home was a bit smoother although we did get caught up in some congestion at around the same point heading south.  However one thing I noticed is that you can’t really take your eyes off the road for even a split-second as cars darted in and out of lanes with reckless abandon at times.  At one point a car came right up behind me and even though I was over the speed limit beeped its horn before switching lanes and then passing me at what had to be well over 90 MPH.

It was not a relaxing trip and I was drained by the time I arrived home last night and yet many of you face this on a daily basis and probably don’t think anything of it.

We live in an area with many commuters who need to travel for better paying jobs but want to live in Ocean County.  It is quite a sacrifice and has to take a lot out of you although I do know those who find their time behind the wheel somewhat relaxing.  As yesterday confirmed I’m not one of them.