october on the east coast

here i am, on the jersey turnpike of all places. first off, i am certainly not happy with driving on expressways, especially toll roads, but it seems that there really isnt any other way out of new york city. every single bridge and tunnel to get out of new york requires a toll. it is absurd, it would make more sense if they did it in a similar way to london with the express goal of cutting down traffic in the city. here it seems that the only purpose is to make money to pay for more roads.

but, what catches me right now, the reason i am breaking for a moment to write this is becasue of gas. the cheapest gas i have seen on my trip, until now, has been $2.34/gallon. on the parkways in new york the convenient stations have gas at $3.30. but here, on the jersey turnpike of all places, gas is only $2.30. i find that rather amazing, they have a captive audience that is already paying to drive on the road, you would think they would take advantage of that and charge as much for gas as possible.

too bad my tank is already full. on to trenton, philadelphia, baltimore, richmond and all points south.

however, before i could leave the travel plaza i had to wait for a long time. i got into a line of cars that were all stopped and played the typical disgruntled driver. throwing my arms up and such. getting out of the car, walking to the front to inquire about the disturbance...even though i had been told precisely what was going on by a number of motorists along the way.

joe biden, the vice president of the united states, was driving through and they had to clear the entire turnpike for his motorcade. we had to wait for nearly an hour while the road was cleared and after the motorcade passed we had to wait for it to get far enough along before we could re-enter. it wasnt that bad, i chatted with some truckers and read for awhile. luckily it was a beautiful day in mid jersey.