The road not taken

I just drove from New Jersey to Durham. My record for this drive is just under 8 hours. Sadly, today was my worst trip ever. The traffic just south of DC was as bad as any I've ever seen there, which is actually rather normal on a holiday weekend. But with no end in sight, I decided to chart my own course and drive around it, venturing into the Virginian hinterland.

Apparently a huge mistake.

The tough thing about detours is, you never know how the traffic would've turned out if you'd stayed on I-95. But, I am pretty sure that the trip wouldn't have taken TWELVE HOURS if I had stayed on the interstate.

That's right, it took me twelve hours. I tried to recreate my route here. I probably would've been better off leaving my house at 1:00 pm. Or taking a four hour nap at the Manassas battlefield. Or just driving straight from NJ to my final destination, Knoxville. That's only an 11 hour trip. But I didn't want to be in the car for that long in one day, so I drove to Durham instead.