Traveling on holiday weekends

[Jeff Hahn]

Normally, I avoid traveling on any and all holiday weekends. Life’s too short to put up with traffic jams and inconsiderate drivers.

But, my son wanted to go to our cabin on Georgian Bay and couldn’t take as much time off as he had hoped. So, he arrived here from Franklin, TN last Sunday and we left for the cabin on Monday morning. Last Monday was Victoria Day in Canada and everyone in Ontario was probably on the road heading north to cottage country on Friday. But, on Monday, the traffic heading north was very, very light! When we pulled up to Canadian Customs in Fort Erie at 10:30 am on Monday morning, there were 3...THREE...cars waiting to go through customs! Unbelievable! I guess that everyone in Ontario who was going some place for the weekend was already there. But, once we got to Toronto and heading north on 400 to Barrie, there was a continual traffic jam for 35 miles heading south!

We reversed the process today, leaving the cabin this morning to head home. We did encounter a huge traffic jam on 400 just south of Barrie due to an accident...all three south bound lanes closed, everyone force to get off the exit...cost us an hour. But, that wasn’t due to the US holiday weekend...that’s happens all too often on 400. Other than that issue, traffic was rather light...far lighter than typical weekday traffic. There were only about 25 cars waiting at US Customs in Buffalo and we go through quickly. Like our trip last weekend, everyone must have been where they wanted to be for the weekend, so we slid through without a major traffic problem.

Were we we just lucky, or is traveling during the midpoint of a holiday weekend usually not as bad of a hassle as it is traveling at the beginning and end of a holiday weekend?

[yanknbass]

coming home from Champlain today was a breeze,89 to 93 usually light up that way but when I got near here it was heavy.

[Mark Perry]

I figured the weekend/holiday traffic here on 1 would suck today as usually weekends around here are a beating. We drove into SF and Los Altos area today and it was great. No real traffic to speak of. I just ran to grocery store here in Half Moon Bay and hardly any people out and about.

Drove by National Cemetary in SF and was blown away. They had flags on every grave. Loved seeing all the US flags all over town too.

[Jboutfishn]

Left Lilburn Georgia Saturday around noon. Drove to the Atlanta Airport, traffic not an issue. Turned in the rental car, took the train from the Hertz lot to the domestic terminal, a total zoo. Security was average, no big deal. Delta to Sacramento Ca was on time. The Sacramento Terminal was very crowded, took a while to get to our parked car. The big surprise... Interstate 5 was very crowded. No accidents, just a lot of traffic including more trucks than I thought normal, especially for a holiday weekend. Heavy rain and lightning slowed traffic a bit from Corning to Redding, normal traffic from Redding north on I-5.

[cwilt]

Wife and i decided to take a drive to the florida keys today. Took us over 3 hours to drive 30 miles...nope, found a restaurant in south key largo and came back home. Traffic was crazy!