I just got back from a lovely 6-day trip to my summer house on Martha’s Vineyard. Being that I live on Long Island, the normal thing I like to do is to hop on the LIE (I-495 East) toward NYC, take the Cross Island Parkway North to the Throggs Neck Bridge, and follow that to I-95 North, which I take to Providence, then veering off to I-195 East toward Cape Cod. Anywho, on a good day, doing a healthy 70-80mph and no traffic, the total trip time from my neck of the woods to Woods Hole Massachusstes, which is where the mandatory ferry to MV is located, takes nearly 5.5 hours.
This most recent time – on August 10th – the trip took closer to 7.5 hours, as there was a 10 mile backup – I mean a DEAD STOP – on I-95 in Connecticut. I sat there, dumbfounded because there is no where else to go. I-95 is the only road. I saw two corpse-carriers roll by me, and 30 mins and a 1/2 mile later I got to the scene of the accident to which there was none. There was a car and two white vans on the shoulder, all damage-free. No bodies, no skidmarks, no carnage. Bummer.
Anyway, I’m sitting in traffic at about exit 75 on I-95 North, realizing that if I took the Orient Point, NY / New London, CT Ferry (aka the Cross Sound Ferry), I would have been “on-time”, as the accident occurred before the ferry port in Connecticut. Taking the ferry would have required more “preparation time”, but I wouldn’t have sat in traffic for 3 hours and the possibility of missing the MV ferry wouldn’t have been an issue.
I didn’t miss the MV ferry, but it was close. Driving to the Orient Point side to pick the ferry up, taking it, and arriving in New London Connecticut would have saved me tons of time and aggravation.
It is for this reason, that unless I leave in the middle of the night, I am now forever taking the Cross Sound Ferry to CT if I need to go to New England, and I highly suggest that you all should think about it to. 🙂