h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My parents live about 40 miles away. I've tried a lot of different routes to get to their house, but it *always* takes an hour to get there.

Unfortunately, my folks live out on the island, and there are only 2 roads to get there ... both through wine country, farmland and tourist traps.

I see.

The straightest route between my house and my parents' is Route 117, which goes through the centers of a lot of small towns, all of which have 30-miles-per-hour speed limits.

I can take the Mass. Turnpike to 495, and go 65 mph most of the way, and maybe save some time, but it costs money at the tollbooth.

Or, I can take Route 9 to 495, and not pay any tolls, but 9 goes straight through the middle of a *major* shopping-plaza cluster, which is apt to be slow going.

Always! I try to steer clear of shopping malls at all cost!

Yes Paul, actually I *can* drive across the Chesapeake Bay, and have done so, many times.


There's the Bay Bridge, which goes from roughly just north of Annapolis on the western shore, to the Stevensville area on Kent Island, on the eastern shore of the bay. The bridge was built many years before my family moved to the eastern shore (which was about 40 years ago), and a couple decades ago, they built a second span to better handle the beach traffic and Northern Va/Baltimore/DC/Annapolis area commuters who live on the eastern shore. You should look up a picture or map of it sometime, the thing has a huge curve in the middle of it. The span is about 5 miles long, including approaches on either side of the bay.

If you want to cross the bay close to where it joins the Atlantic Ocean, there's the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, which is much longer (I think it's around 11 miles), and has both bridge portions and tunnel portions across the bay. The Bay Bridge Tunnel is also curved.


Before these bridges were built, there were ferrys from one shore to the other - driving all the way up the shore and then down past Baltimore is *extremely* time consuming, and the only time I'd consider it is if traffic is backed up about 20 miles because of an accident on the bridge. Otherwise, it's better to either make your trip another day, or just wait for the traffic to clear.

I am enjoying this part of the country right now...nice weather...nice beach and so on