Highway Madness
I did a quick trip down to my parents' yesterday/today, some 500 miles round trip on I-89, I-91 and the Merritt Parkway. The highways and byways were an absolute zoo. I am amazed to be back home in one piece.
The Merritt Parkway, opened in 1938 as a nice parkway to enjoy at no more than 45 mph (I can remember my grandparents' and even my father's recollections about it), is a race track. I pot along at 70 mph in a 55 mph speed limit, while cars plow by me at at least 80 mph. No wonder there was a huge tie-up in Trumbull, CT, so bad that I bailed out, drove through Long Hill and came back to the Merritt by way of Rte 25, circumventing it. The accident must have been bad since the entire road was plugged up: nary a car coming through. It was also getting backed up on the southbound side. I suspect someone barrelled into the bridge where the road curves.
And I-91 yesterday in Springfield MA was just as bad -- closed down for a couple of hours because of truck accidents on both sides.
No wonder I like being back up north.
I-91 represents a major thread of my life and my past. My family used to go up and down that road en route from CT to VT. I remember in 1969 when my parents woke us children up so that we could enjoy going on the finished segment of I-91 from West Springfield to Northampton, MA, thereby avoiding the Rte 5/Rte 9 jam up in NoHo. Then there was the time that we stopped in CT somewhere at night to look at northern lights, one of the two times in my life that I have seen them. I have gone up and down that road for 40 years, almost all my life and shall continue but with less pleasure. Pure and simple, neither the Merritt nor I-91 can handle the volume of traffic these days. I breathe again once I hit Greenfield MA and can put the cruise control back on. Ouf.
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