Via Byway, My Way.

It was quite a harrowing drive from Richmond to New Jersey. First of all, it is the Friday right before Christmas Eve…so, scores and scores of folks making their way north, south, east, west and every other direction. This resulted in massive traffic jams all along Interstate 95, the I-5 of the East Coast. Numerous fender benders plagued the progress, if one can call it that. My car certainly didn’t like it. It took me one hour to go 5 miles. Thought my car was going to explode (when I bought it, the seller told me that the gauge tracking the overheating of the car was broken). The toll roads were something I was not used to. Paying $5 to cross a bridge? I paid close to $15 in tolls for my last 180 miles.

I did make it into Baltimore and checked out the Inner Harbor. And also ended up in the really seedy side of town, which incidentally is adjacent to the Central Precinct police station. I figured I spend a few hours and let the traffic congestion alleviate a bit. So I headed back out on the road at 8pm. The 180 mile drive ended up taking 4.5 hours. It didn’t help that I took the really long route through Delaware and Philadelphia. Instead of going Northwest and North along the New Jersey Turnpike, I ended up going Northwest, then East, then South, then Northeast, and then finally North. And once I got to the township of Colonia, I couldn’t quite find the house.

But I, and the car, made it! So there! All you who wagered that the never-say-die Honda would waver in those Southern states, HA! Well, I have to admit that I too wasn’t so sure that the car would survive. But it did.

And now, a quandry. I can’t sell it. Seems all the folks that contacted me regarding my Craigslist posting have flaked out. Or changed their minds. I tried to sell it to some used car lots, but because of its age, 250K miles, AND it’s reconstructed salvage title, they won’t touch it. I went to a flea market and tried to sell it there too, in the parking lot. My brother tried to help and called all his buddies. Nope. And all the donation places that I wanted to donate it to, well, they are closed until Tuesday. So I’m in a bit of a dilemma. I don’t just want to leave it and be liable for anything that could happen. I’d like to get some money out of it, but fat chance of that happening now. I could take it to a junk scrap yard, but I don’t know. I’ll have to decide by tomorrow cause that’s when my train is leaving. I can’t believe no one would want to buy my car for even $400, after all it did make it over 5000 miles with nary a problem. So maybe this means something….maybe it means that I leave it here, and come back in the early summer to drive BACK to Portland, but this time taking the northern route via the Midwest, Minnesota, the Dakotas et al. And I’d get new back tires for it for that journey. But I haven’t decided yet. Maybe Santa will give me a sign of what to do. I also didn’t plan for all the stuff I’ll have to bring back. I ended up getting a big rolling duffle bag for all my bike gear, marathon stuff and souvenirs/gifts I’ve collected along the way. Just hope Amtrak will be able to accommodate all that stuff I have to bring back. My bike is staying here.

Check out my previous entries, as I was able to add a few pics under ‘Outer Banks’ ‘New Orleans’ and ‘How to Save on Travel Costs.’ I should have most of my other pics available next week when I get back. Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend. Check back later in a few days as I’ll have my final stats for this cross country trip and parting words until my next big adventure in January — hello Guatemala!

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 24th, 2005 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.