En Route

Cross country road trips are not for the weak (marriages). We do these types of trips a lot. There has been at least one every summer and there has yet to be a trip where I don't get yelled at for being a bad navigator. In fact, I've been told in the past that I need to come for a ride-along in a fire engine so I can hear what proper instructions and navigation sound like. 

What does this have to do with your boat, you're asking. On our journey from Broomfield, Colorado to South Kingstown, Rhode Island, we covered 2,005 miles in 30.25 hours. The first day wrapped up in Portage, Indiana after 1,068 miles, with no big stories. We played a lot of movies, ate even more snacks, and even had a few naps (not by the driver). It was by far the best travel day we have ever had with the kids and we told them that, despite our worries about having 3 kids share one tablet. All of our stops were efficient and productive, with only one or two impromptu stops to take care of basic kid needs. Could we ask for anything more? Besides a repeat of the day, nope.

Day 2 was far from a repeat. It started out drizzling. Not pouring, so that was good, but it was wet enough for the kids to quickly understand what 100% humidity is and the way it makes our (my) hair so much prettier (frizzier). Ha! They kept asking if it was going to stay like that and stay that hot- it was about 80°. All I really could say was, "Well... yeah..." and, "This is part of the reason why we live where we live."

Our drive kept us on I-80 all the way through New York. Google Maps and Waze were competing for the best route once we hit New York, but Google Maps won because it loaded the alternate route options quicker in the end. It had us cross the Hudson on the George Washington Bridge- a pretty cool double-decker bridge, minus the fact that the lady in the toll booth had us pay $66 to cross it on the top level with our one extra axel (the U-Haul trailer). Cars pay $16 and she said our truck alone would be $44. Ben said she probably classified us as a semi.

Wanting to capture several things, (like the New York State Sign, the bridge, and the looks on the kids' faces when they saw the big city, bridge, waterway, and everything for the first time), I made sure my camera was available on my phone and the navigation on the Google Maps window was still visible. See the image below to see how my screen was set up. I told Ben, "It says we take exit 1 C-D after we cross over the bridge," thinking that I covered my bases.

Looking down at the river below, Moose spotted a boat and we told him that we'd be cruising down there and under the bridge we were on, in just a few days. He was surprised and excited. (It turns out we misinformed him- our route took us another way- but we will be on that part next summer or the year after.)

On the other end of the bridge, exit 1 appeared much quicker than I anticipated. I repeated out loud that we take exit 1 C-D and thought to myself that I successfully navigated and took my pictures, but I was wrong. To my right was exit 1 and the next sign said exit 2 and looked like it was right there, so thinking that exit 1 would branch off into A-B and C-D, I told Ben to get off at 1. I looked at the map and saw "Rerouting..." and knew I was in for it. It= Carters driving their truck with slide-in camper and U-Haul trailer adventure in Manhattan, of course.

Oops.

That was wrong. My bad. I should've been solely focused on my navigation duties. In my defense- the kids' reaction was priceless, I got some blurry but memorable pics, and I missed the stinking New York sign anyways. Did I learn my lesson? Probably not...

Exit 1 led us down to an intersection with, thank God, a red light, and no lettered exit in sight. Ben had some choice words for me and my navigator skills that I chose to ignore while I quickly tried to find our way to I-87 among the streets in the West Bronx. Luckily, Ben spotted a sign that pointed to the I-87 truck route, so we turned left and followed the directions to get us back on track to I-87 while avoiding the outside lanes which had an obscene amount of people double and triple parked on the street. The new route took us under the EL train (thanks, Momma and your Brooklyn roots for the proper terminology) while introducing our kids to really awful drivers, some of which were on motorcycles or scooters with Uber Eats bags on their back luggage bar. (I don't think I'd ever order that while in the city after seeing the conditions they have to drive in... or I'd tip them really well.) I rolled my window down to be sure to get the full NYC experience- sights, sounds, and smells.

Once we were on I-87 I could almost breathe again. Google Maps had us en route to I-95 by way of some parkways. I was busy reading signs and making sure to avoid more of what we had just been through. I read a sign made of lights to Ben, "You are overweight. Take the next exit." He said he didn't care and we kept going. I was confused about why the truck's weight would matter. After a while of looking at overpass heights, I wondered out loud if we were short enough to clear them. Turns out the truck clearance with the camper is 11' 6".

Fast-forward a few more exits and I saw the sign again, only this time I realized I read the last one wrong and it actually said, "You are overheight. Take the next exit." Looking ahead, the next bridge clearance was 10' 4", so Ben quickly got in the right lane and took the next exit. We pulled over to get a look at the map and get us to I-95, avoiding the parkways. (Does anyone know how to input height restrictions into a mapping device? I know it's possible to avoid tolls or avoid highways, but haven't seen it for avoiding short bridges. This would've saved us the second rerouting in New York.) Ben found a route and put my phone on the dash so he could see the map and keep it out of my reach. I said he put my phone in timeout.

If you've ever tried to drive somewhere against your GPS's will, you know how obnoxious it is. We listened to and ignored the Google lady reroute us countless times, "In 1,000 feet turn left on... Then turn right on..."

I-95 appeared quickly and, thankfully, didn't have any low bridges. We knew we were in good company when we saw several semis on the highway alongside us.

Now, of course, there are two sides to every story. Here's Ben's story- painted with broad strokes, but obviously mine is more eloquent and detailed, right 8B?

Just after the George Washington Bridge, Lisa said I had to take a right on Exit 1D, I think. So she's busy taking pictures, like normal, and Exit 1 popped up and I said, "Is this the exit?"

She said, "1D," and I was like, "Well it says 1, and the next exit's 2," so she said to take a right.

Then we ended up in Manhattan driving under the Elevated Line and Lisa could navigate us back to the route, so I ended up driving through Manhattan and trying to get on a parkway. We're 11 and 1/2 feet tall and we get almost to I-95 and there was a sign saying too tall use this exit now. There's a blinking light and everything. There was a bridge that was 10' 4" and we would have lost the top foot of the camper. Very similar to the cabin story on the way to Carterado when we hauled it there. I hit that exit and we had to drive through Yonkers. Maps couldn't figure out how to navigate to I-95 so I just ended up looking at the map, finding our way, and then we got on I-95 and went to Rhode Island.

----- (End of Ben's perspective)

At an interstate service center, we were stopped for fuel and potty breaks when a random guy walked up to Ben, who had just started pumping fuel into the truck, and asked him for some money to get his teenager's car some gas. When Ben said no, the guy asked if Ben could finish pumping the gas into the truck and wait for him to pull up his car for a few gallons. Ben told him it was diesel so it wouldn't do him any good. He mentioned needing help getting his keys that were locked inside his car. Ben said he'd hate to bust his window open and then watched as the guy walked to his car, opened the door, and drove away.

The rest of the drive was uneventful as the apologies were spoken and the kids fell asleep once we crossed into Connecticut on I-95 (and wound up missing the photo of the Connecticut sign as well due to my phone being in time-out). We exited I-95, got onto Hwy 2, then US-1 and I navigated us directly to the parking lot of T's where we stopped a little before midnight, parked, slept, and waited for the 7 AM opening so we could eat our delicious breakfast before boarding the boat with the kids for the first time.