The Journey to LI

...was long. Seven hours long. The Garmen said it would only be four. It was wrong. Very wrong. Either the Garmen is overly-optimistic or it doesn't understand the nature of traffic in NY. I know it isn't programmed for traffic but it is very depressing to see the arrival time change from 3:39PM minute by minute to 6:45PM. Regardless, we were not expecting this trip to take longer then five hours or we wouldn't have left the portable DVD player at home!

I finally had to write down bits and pieces of this memorable trip:

• We decided to try out the HOV lane on the LIE (Long Island Expressway). This lane is supposed to be saved for High Occupancy Vehicles - meaning two or more passengers. It usually goes faster and you can only enter and exit it at certain points. The annoying factor is that although it appeared to be moving much faster than the rest of the lanes, we abruptly came to a crawl and even a stop while the rest of the LIE moved forward. The plan subsequently changed - we would exit the HOV lane at the next opportunity. However, when that opportunity arrived, the LIE was at a stop again and we were moving. Simms decided to stay where we were and sure enough, we soon came to a stop as the LIE began to move again. It definitely felt like a cruel trick was being played on us. We didn't realize the boys were noticing until we heard Barber cry from the back seat "WE ARE TRAPPED!!!"
  
  
• Simms doesn't like driving next to large trucks or barricaded walls. It's even worse when he feels sandwiched between them. I don't know what Jeter said but I couldn't help laughing when I heard Simms response "Don't make fun of being afraid of trucks. It is a legitimate concern."
  
  
• It could be due to the lack of DVD's but we heard the question "Are we there yet?" too many times. It then evolved into "How much longer?" The difficulty in answering this was that in a span of 30 minutes our answer remained the same "About an hour". Finally Barber protested "It can't be! Time has passed and you gave that answer a long time ago." Trust me - we all felt his pain.
  
  
• I don't know about you but constant repetition can get really annoying. It was this that led to Simms declaration to the boys - "You are no longer allowed to say 'hay bale' in the car. Ever!"
  
  
• After their quick education in traffic, Barber began to pay attention to the cars around us and the goal of staying ahead of them. All of a sudden we heard him yell "Hey! You passed us!" What alarmed us was that Simms and I heard "Hey! You b@st@rd!" Thankfully it was only our traffic-mind-altering-stupor that momentarily affected our hearing and our four year old didn't really say those words to the driver of a car that was passing us.