Am I at the Beach? Or did someone create a portable beach and decide to dump their sand in the middle of Rt. 422 this morning? Instead of water… waves of vehicles, exhaust fumes, and many irritated non-portable beach goers!
Yes, this morning was another drive from “The Heated Down Under”, but this time someone thought it would be funny to tip their truck over in the middle of the East Bound lanes of Route 422 and create a portable beach for all the commuters to drive through. Not funny or fun, especially when you wake up early, do a workout routine, eat breakfast and as you are about to put your first spoonful of cereal in your mouth you hear “And on 422….”
Being that we’ve been stuck in 422 traffic before, almost everyday actually, we decided to not rush into work and just wait a bit to let some of the traffic die down and maybe miss the “beach trip” we weren’t interested in going on. After waiting a bit and getting ready for our ride, we make it to about Collegeville when we see a sea of red break lights… here we go… Calling work we let my boss know that we are stuck and she suggests getting off at Oaks and taking back roads to the Trooper ramp. Being that the truck made a beach prior to the Trooper on ramp this sounded like a good idea.
This is where my frustration level exceeds it’s limits and I start to lose my cool. As I am exiting 422 I am located right behind a black Lexus who is beginning to annoy me just a little. She isn’t really paying attention and kinda just poking along. Now I realize she can’t really get anywhere because we are all stuck in the same mass of cars trying to get to all our “important” destinations, but she could at least be paying attention to her surroundings and the cars in front of her when they start to move. Nah, instead she is too busy trying to make herself beautiful, by looking in the mirror and putting on makeup! That ANNOYS me!!! Get ready before getting into your car!!! Why do you try and put your makeup on while driving???? Are you trying to cause another accident???? All these thoughts encompass my thoughts as I am trying my best to remain calm and not rear-end her.
As we continue on our way, yes I am still behind Ms Lexus, we come upon an intersection that the signal light is not working. There is a man out directing traffic (and not doing a good job at it) so we have to wait our turn to proceed. Ms Lexus is doing her poke crawl routine and when we are instructed to start moving she approaches the intersection with her right turn signal on (which is the way we are turning to) and when she gets to the intersection she slams on her brakes and awkwardly turns her head to the right, not being sure if she should turn here! GET OUT OF MY WAY YOU WANTA BE BEAUTY QUEEN, LEARN HOW TO DRIVE BEFORE YOU CAUSE ANOTHER ACCIDENT! (maybe not exactly those words :-)) She decides to turn and remains at a nice slow crawl with her cell phone up to her ear!!!! Now, why why why do people do that, it drives me and I am sure a billion other people nuts when people do not know where they are going and continue to drive at a snails pace with their phone up to their ear, while they have a train of cars behind them!!! PULL OVER!!!!
Making our way back to 422, the Trooper ramp was clear and we could see that the Portable Beach was still across the East Bound Lanes of 422. By exiting at Oaks and taking back-roads, even behind a horrible driver, I think we made better time then if we would have remained on 422 the entire way.
Unfortunately I had to follow Ms Lexus the entire way to Moore Road, it’s like God was testing my patience this morning!!! After all is said and done, we made it to work safely and my patience were tested along with my ability to break and accelerate without rear-ending anyone 🙂
I hope that the man involved in the accident escaped with no injuries and hopefully someone will let him know that Portable Beaches aren’t the in thing, at least not on 422!
Lauren said,
July 27, 2007 @ 1:37 pm
OMG I so do not miss 422!!! And especially women who do that!!! Do they see some sign that the rest of us are missing – like a “now entering the 422 beauty highway, right turn signal and masacra wand ahead” ?????? Oye!
Josh said,
July 27, 2007 @ 3:49 pm
This reminds me of a time when I was traveling south bound on Route 42 in Southern Jersey, just before it the Atlantic City Expressway. I way just about to the last exit before the split and I see in front of me what appears to be a wave of water. I begin to think that I’m going crazy because there’s no body of water around that could produce this massive tidal wave, but soon realize that a truck traveling towards me managed to drive into the median and tip over – spilling tons of sand and rocks toward oncoming traffic!!! Because I was about ten cars back I only received a dusting, but it could have been much worse if I was closer as I would imagine the first few cars were pummeled with rocks and sand. Thankfully I was literally sitting at that last exit so I just turned my wheel and hopped onto old Route 168 bypassing any wait what-so-ever!
Megs said,
July 27, 2007 @ 4:12 pm
Great story Josh… Another truck driver bringing Portable Beaches to all the commuters of the world! At least you didn’t have to deal with the Beauty Queen wanta be!!!!!
Megs said,
July 27, 2007 @ 4:25 pm
And Lauren, not to sound rude to a whole bunch of people, but if there is a sign that says “entering the 422 beauty highway” either a bunch of people are blind or I don’t know what beauty is because some of those people are far from beautiful!!!
Mom said,
July 28, 2007 @ 9:33 am
a very thoughtful closing.
Josh's Mom said,
July 28, 2007 @ 11:35 pm
God never gives us more then we can handle.
However, stressing an issue….. I think he’s good at!
It teaches us patience
Lauren said,
July 29, 2007 @ 11:17 am
LOL….perhaps should have said the “make-up highway” instead of “beauty”.
Michelle said,
July 31, 2007 @ 10:02 am
I know what you mean! This one day I was on my way to my desk and bam there was the cat right there in the middle of the floor! Having to walk all the way her just messed up the flow for the rest of my day. LOL – don’t hate me to much 🙂
Megs said,
July 31, 2007 @ 10:39 am
Yeah you are pretty much on my “Pooper List” right now… I am sure that both Lauren and Josh agree with me!
Is it winter yet so I can stay at home and have a snow day… oh poor Michelle her desk is at home, no snow day for you! Don’t hate us too much!
Josh said,
July 31, 2007 @ 10:47 am
There’s really such a thing as a Pooper list? Wow…
Matt said,
August 8, 2007 @ 1:48 pm
This reminds me of the time i was travelling to ElKbab squished in the backseat of a taxi with 3 Moroccans. Suddenly a dehydrated malnourished dog wonders into the street. The pickup truck in front of us slams on its breaks to avoid the suicidal dog. The sudden jarring causes a horse in the bed of the pickup to jump out the back directly in front of my taxi. My driver swerves to avoid the fleeing horse and hits the grazing sheep on the side of the road. Bam, lamb chops! Now the flock is in total chaos, the sheep have lost their leader. Goats and sheep flood the street causing the cars to bottleneck. No one is going anywhere. The sudden swerve was also to much for the berber women beside me to handle. She begins vomiting in a small plastic bag, but as it quickly fills it overflows showering my pants with fresh décor. All I could do is sit and watch as the normally slower but now luckier berbers riding on donkey backs pass and stare.
Now you may say that couldn’t of all happened to you. Well it did just not all in the same trip.