I'd like to say our Thanksgiving travel was mostly stress-free. We were headed south to the Asheville, NC area; Google Maps' recommendation was to take the 895 spur from South Baltimore to I-95 to the Capital Beltway to I-66, then take I-66 west to I-81. Perfect route for late Tuesday afternoon - not!

Instead, we took I-97 to 100, out to I-70 west, then US 340 to US 15 to US 29. The only traffic we hit was the rush hour traffic in near 270. Once we got on 29, it opened up to 4 lanes and moved at speed all the way through central and southern Virginia. It's our preferred route to NC - rarely crowded, nice scenic views, and plenty of places to stop off for a bite or a nap. Be forewarned, though - it is not a good route for speeders. You will get popped, especially if you have out-of-state plates.

On Saturday before Thanksgiving, we drove north from the Annapolis area to southern New Hampshire for our Thanksgiving journey. Since we pull a twin axle travel trailer, we are particularly attuned to the usury at the toll booths. We pay (dearly) the toll at the Bay Bridge eastbound, and take US-301_N into Delaware and then Del-896 to I-95. This avoids the tolls through Baltimore and the Maryland and Delaware tolls on I-95. (they also don't like propane bottles in the tunnel so it would be Key Bridge or beltway west) We then continue on I-95 thru Philly up to US-206_N into Princeton, NJ. We take US-206 up to I-287_N in NJ to avoid the NJ Pike tolls, the Garden State Parkway tolls and the steep tolls at the Tappan-Zee bridge across the Hudson. From I-287 in NJ we jump onto the NY State Thruway (I-87) for a short jaunt (moderate toll) to I-84 eastbound. There is a modest, east-bound only toll at I-84 crossing of the Hudson at Newburgh, NY. We stay on I-84_E until Hartford, CT then take I-91_N into Vermont then cross over to NH near Keene, NH.

Coming back on Sunday, we re-traced our steps starting out at around 10:30 AM and made it back to the Annapolis area comfortably by 11:00 PM with several stops for fuel, lunch, shopping, and dinner. At no point did we stop or even slow down for any traffic back-ups. Even though the distance is longer by about 80-90 miles, the traffic is lighter, better mannered, the tolls we save, more than pay for the extra fuel. At the Delaware Highway Robbery Memorial Bridge, the toll for our rig (if we went that way) is $16 for four axles total. Two axle vehicles are $3. WTF ?

Our travel went suprisingly well. We left Baltimore for New Rochelle New York at 6:30 a.m. Thursday morning. We did the route 40 detour around the first Delaware toll without any issues. We then had no traffic up to the GW Bridge. Indeed, we hit the Bridge at 10:00 a.m. The only traffic we had was in the last few miles on the Hutchinson River Parkway up to New Rochelle.

On the way back, we left New York City at 5:30 p.m. Sunday evening. We opted to spend some money on tolls, and took the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, then the Verazzano through Staten Island and the Gowanus and ended up at Exhit 11 on the NJ Parkway - there was terrible traffice north of there at Exit 13 around the meadowlands because of the football game ending. We bypassed all of that. We made it to Baltimore by 9:45 pm - including one rest stop (I am traveling with a 3 year old and a 5 year old).
Needless to say - I think it is a miracle that the travel went so well- a little more than 4 hours each way!

I took the Delaware/NJ route up to Long Island on Thursday morning. No real traffic and I took 40 for a bit to avoid being robbed in Delaware.

On the way back, I went to the aforementioned Giants game and took the Northeast Passage. The only snag was a 2.5 mile backup for the toll on I-78 and slow traffic for a few miles after the toll. That probably added 30 minutes to the trip. I got onto the NJ Turnpike at the stadium around 4:45 and was home downtown at 8:40.

It looks like there's a way to avoid a delay at the I-78 toll by taking Rt. 22 through Easton and coming back to 78 via Rt. 33, but I didn't do my homework. Also, I don't know if there's a reliable way to find out if there is a backup at that particular toll, especially once you are already on the road and I don't travel this route enough to know if a delay is common. There appears to be a toll on Rt. 22, as well.

Compared to previous years, it went very well. Although much of that was probably due to travel timing more then anything else. This year I left Baltimore at 7am Thursday morning for my drive to NW New Jersey. I usually take the 83/81/78 route, but the GPS indicated some traffic around Harrisburg, so I took the exit to Rt. 30 to 222 near York. No traffic issues at all.

On the return trip I left NJ around 9am on Saturday morning and took 78/81/83, again with no traffic problems at all.

Due to a sick kid, we didn't get on the road until 5 PM Wednesday, heading to the Philly suburbs. Fearing the worst, we tried US Route 1 for the first time - picking it up at 695 and taking it past Bel Air across the Conowingo Dam all the way into Pennsylvania. Aside from traffic lights, it was a very smooth trip, and no tolls. And the McDonalds in Rising Sun is one of the best-run I've ever seen. Not a bad trip at all.