I caught a bird's eye view of the congested southbound GSP from an overpass on route 18 in Eatontown and quickly realized the mistake I had made, too late as usual.
I had to decide ...
whether to take 34 south and u-turn at the intersection with 70 just north of Point Pleasant onto 35 north or risk taking 35 from 138 east near Belmar to my destination in Manasquan. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. The u-turn is before the drawbridge which is the usual bottleneck, not so much because it opens but because the speed limit slows down.
I opted for the second route since I didn't want to backtrack west to get to 34 and I wasn't sure whether I would get caught up in GSP traffic since 34 leads to the southbound GSP.
Sure, I caught some eastbound traffic along 138 going to Belmar and 35 north but it wasn't bad. 35 south was a little crumby especially since it was the noon hour and I had to get gas ... my husband left very little in his tank, typical for the end of the week, and all the stations seemed to be on the northbound side. So, getting back onto 35 south was a little hairy but I made use of a turning lane, something I don't like to do.
I left the car at Volvo, strapped the kids into my double stroller and walked down 35 to the light to cross. I chose to walk in the grass because drivers use the shoulder for a turning lane. When the light changed, I ran across the street. Then started back up 35 to the McDonald's which is actually directly across the street from Volvo. It was busy because of lunchtime and the Silton Swim Club kids were getting out of their morning session. I considered that program for Kenny last summer but it was impossible to get him in, and the drive would really be a killer every day, twice a day. I couldn't do that to my other kids.
As we ate, I glanced out the window and was surprised to see Jeff's car up in a garage. It came down rather quickly and was parked on the lot. I knew it was a small piece that they had to replace, so it seemed reasonable. Maybe a little quick. But my kids are slow eaters and, since they ate my food too, I was done and impatient long before they were. Actually, I can't eat McDonald's right now ... it grosses me out.
The walking route back to Volvo was the same, in reverse, and involved running across the state highway again. I ventured onto the shoulder at one point because the grass uphill was just too difficult and almost got clipped by a truck whose driver decided to pull out of the line of cars going straight and to turn right at the light, taking full advantage of the shoulder, all without using his signal. I made an open-palm gesture, like "Can't you see I'm walking here?!" but only his passenger saw me. One of my few problems with illegal immigrants is that they can't drive and yet are driving trucks all over the state.
And the sad news is that when the mechanic opened the parts box, he found the wrong part inside. So, no work was done. My suspicion is that they ordered the XC90 part instead of the V70 part because they are forever confusing my car with my husband's. It doesn't help that the vehicle registrations support such a misunderstanding. I mean, he's driving my old car (how many husbands can say that?! I married a feminist, what can I say?) but when he bought the new car he put it in his name.
And the worst part is that the desk guy who told me the bad news was out of the office and away in his car for a long holiday weekend before I even had my kids loaded into the car. A part of me wondered whether the holiday weekend had anything to do with this garage not wanting to do any work. And the other part of me wondered how this garage can have the highest level of customer satisfaction (or whatever they are ranked #1 in the state for) when my experience this week involved two trips down there for nothing.
As I was leaving at 1pm, the southbound traffic on 35 was awful, as was the eastbound traffic on 138. And cops everywhere writing tickets. End of the month blitz.
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