Deathride 2010....

I had an interesting ride back from UDelaware yesterday, after driving AJ back to school after spring break. The normal 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hour ride turned into an almost 3 hour odyssey (in our Odyssey). So here is what happened....

I by-passed the Delaware Memorial Bridge as the traffic on I95 in Delaware was backed up exiting onto the approach to the bridge. No big deal, I have done this before, simply taking I95 north through Wilmington and then cutting over to New Jersey via the Commodore Barry Bridge at Chester, PA. This then leads you to Route 130 which then dumps you onto I295. Mission accomplished, I settled in for the remainder of the drive home. Traffic was heavy, and about 5 miles south of the I295-I76 interchange in Bellmawr, there was a large construction zone, with 2 right lanes and one left lane that was actually on the southbound side. Signs indicated that you should bear right for local exits, but not realizing this ALSO meant the I295-I76 interchange, I jumped into the left lane as there was very little traffic in it. As I entered this crazy intersection, with a lot of traffic and multiple lanes, cars crossing over, etc., I saw that I had 2 options - stay on I76 and take the Walt Whitman Bridge into Philadelphia or take I676 north towards Camden. I did the latter, figuring I could find a way to cut over to I295 again. No luck with that, as there was no signage on I676 indicating how one could get back to I295. At that point, I figured that I would simply cruise over the Ben Franklin Bridge and take I95 north again and back to home.

Unfortunately, I continued to outsmart myself....! I saw the signs for the waterfront district of Camden, where the aquarium is, and knew that the main road that led to the aquarium also led directly back to I295 and the NJ Turnpike, so I got off at that exit. Instead of heading towards the waterfront to my left, for some reason I went straight through the light and ended up in a very bad section of Camden, known as the Red Zone.... This is when I determined that if I got a flat tire, I would continue to drive on the flat tire! I wandered around this area, trying not to stop moving and avoiding looking around as much as I could, until I saw a street that went a ways back the way I had come. I ended up next to the Rutgers Camden campus and took Cooper Ave back to I676 and went back the way I had come. End of story?

Well, no. Once I got back to the I76-I295 interchange, I somehow again missed the signs for I295 North and ended up on Route 42 South, heading towards Atlantic City! I went about 6 miles down this road before I realized that it wasn't I295! Once I got turned around north again, the traffic was backed up due to an accident. At that point, I got my iPhone out and started looking at the Maps app to see where the heck I was.... The next exit had a 'To NJ Tpke' sign, so I took that, along with most of the other cars sitting in the traffic jam..... This was Route 168. It took me about 20 minutes to get to the Turnpike, getting on at Exit 3. Almost immediately I see the signs warning of 'heavy delays ahead'.... Fortunately, I knew that Exit 4 would put you right back onto I295 (they Turnpike and I295 are only about a mile apart at that point). So, back on I295, basically just north of where I had gotten messed up an hour earlier!

I left AJ's dorm at Delaware at 6:30 pm and arrived home at 9:20 pm.