DAY 3: Navigating the Highways & Byways

 

Observation of the day

No matter how hard you try, you can’t avoid I-95 when you are traveling on the East Coast and it STINKS in every state.

 

Quote of the day

“The first sign which actually shows we know what we’re doing.” – spoken by VM after nearly 7.5 hours of driving in miserable traffic (thanks D.C., NY & NJ!) and miserable weather (thanks Elsa!) upon seeing the I-95N sign which also said NEW LONDON! WOO HOO!

 

Loved waking up in Richmond, VA!

VM & EM: First of all, we both give a big THUMBS UP to the auto train. We really enjoyed the experience & even got a decent night’s sleep in our train nook. Our tips for any future travelers considering it: 1) DEFINITELY invest in a roomette or a full room. We got the former & it was fine for us. A room provides a bit more space & a sink & shower. 2) DEFINITELY invest in priority deboarding for your vehicle. $60 assures your car is one of the first of 30 to come off the train. We did NOT do this and kid you not, our car was one of the last of the 196 cars to come off. Not a big deal as no one was waiting on us, but once you are ready to go, you are ready to go. 3) And one final note -- if you check in early, you get an early dinnertime. Some might not like this, but we preferred dining at 7pm rather than 8:30pm. Now, if we could just get the auto train to go a little further, things would be perfect…

Our ending point!

 

D.C. from the road!

Because of Elsa, we had a late arrival into Lorton, VA (10:45 vs 9am) so by the time we got our car, we hit D.C. traffic around noon. There is not much to say about the 

drive except that it was nerve-wracking and longgggg. We truly think the weather made everything worse but there is no doubt about it, I-95 driving sucks.

We're not in FL anymore! We liked crossing this bridge like a real New Englander.

 

Traffic made this bridge bit more stressful.

Yes! That's New York!

Final bridge over the Hudson River.

We finally made it to our hotel in Mystic at 8:15pm. Right now, we’re not sure if we’ll be able to do anything tomorrow as the weather doesn’t seem to be cooperating. We will see….

Not the New England summer we were hoping for!

Random Pics of the Day

By our count, we drove through 6 states + D.C. today -- a record for us! We didn't catch the signs for Virginia, Maryland or Delaware.