You’ve got to love the E-ZPass…

So we’re half-way on the May trip to the East Coast – meaning we have arrived in Bar Harbor, Maine for a few days. Wednesday’s big effort was 12 hours 40 minutes driving from Newark, Delaware to Bar Harbor Maine – 625 miles, of which a bit more than half was in the rain.

For the most part the travel along I-95, the New Jersey Turnpike, I-295 etc was without much incident, but as was the case last year the crunch in the traffic to fit however many roads and lanes down to the 6 or so lanes that go over the George Washington Bridge which crosses the Hudson River in New York was a nightmare of lane changing, squeezing, crawling and inching – the delay was at least all of that indicated on the signs in the picture above.

Apart from this mess, it was just a looooooooong day for the 625 miles, but we’re here now for a few days, and it’s almost already forgotten. Luckily we don’t have to go home this way!!!!!!

But the travelling is certainly made easier by the use of the E-ZPass I got for the car a few years ago which means we don’t have to stop and fumble with money to pay the various road tolls in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maine (Ohio hasn’t yet joined the modern age and we do have to stop and hand over actual money at the Toll Booths there). Some Toll Booths require you to slow down to 15 mph, or 10 mph or even 5 mph, but the newer ones – “Express” let you just drive on through at 55 mph, and somehow their technology can read the E-ZPass transponder that is stuck to the top of the windscreen inside. It is read, and the toll deducted from our account, which is automagically replenished when it’s nearly empty. A great time and hassle saver.

A sign of a different nature took our fancy today when Lisa, Don, Mindy and I were heading out for a drive to Deer Isle down to the  south west of Mount Desert Island (more on that in another posting tomorrow…)

(click the image to see a larger version of it).