drwex | How many people were frelled in this trip? (Reply)

The trip down was one hella adventure. Left a bit after 10A, finally got to the hotel a bit over 8 hours later.

The first people frelled were the two of us. Because I foolishly insisted on driving so we could get in earlier and pick up the truck, as well as not having to rely on other people to chauffeur us around. Remember that 'earlier' bit - it'll be important later in the story.

The next person(s) to get frelled were the people on Rt 84 (apparently not serious enough to warrant a news story despite the two ambulances we saw leaving the scene). Southbound slowed to a crawl for about 20 minutes and when we got by we saw the wreckage of what probably used to be a motor home. I say 'probably' because the largest remaining intact piece was about 4'x5' and hard to identify. There was also something that used to be a Chevy Bronco or similar, the front and top of which were crushed in pretty completely. My guess is that either the motor home was towing the car and lost control or the two met in some violent manner.

After that we proceeded down the usual route, with some minor delays here and there, until we hit the Garden State ~~Parkway~~Parking Lot. Where we slowed to a five-lane-wide crawl, taking about an hour to go three miles. And that was after being in the jam for a good long while. The backstory is here: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/woodbridge_threecaraccident_ba.html
The number of times that story uses the phrase "ejected from vehicle" makes me think those kids are pretty frelled, but meanwhile we realize that there's no way we're going to make it to PA in time to pick up the truck, so we call them to say we'll get it tomorrow morning. Which was what we had done the drive in the first place to avoid, you may recall.

Oh, no problem, says he, I'll just do the paperwork over the phone and you can pick up the truck when you get here. Keys under the front seat, no problem. WTF? If they'd told us this kind of late unmanned pick-up was possible in the first place we wouldn't have... oh, never mind. Great, good, we'll be there when we can.

Crawl crawl crawl along. Could be worse, could be raining. Oh, did I mention the downpours? And the 90-100 degree heat and 90%+ humidity? Thank ghu for air conditioning. The people frelled by that latter were the rescue workers, poor bastards standing around in the downpour trying to clean up the mess left by the accident. The accident scene in person was much more dramatic than the news story makes it sound. Debris was strewn across a wide area and one of the cars was definitely torched-looking.

Additional people frelled: three in a minor fender-bender in the traffic back-up, and two who got nailed by a statie for trying to use the shoulder to get around the jam.

Eventually we get past the mess and continue down south in the blinding downpours and idiot driving blah blah this is the boring part I'll fast forward to where we reach the pick-up spot for the truck. Did I mention "pick up" and "truck?" Right, there are trucks here but the only truck that's even close to the size we want is not out front and has no keys in it. It does have some other poor bastard's checkbook though. He's probably frelled and we're definitely frelled (again).

I start looking around, maybe this isn't the right place, maybe there's a side lot. Call the pickup place nobody answers - well duh it's an hour after they close and the place is dark and so Pygment gets on the phone to Budget central and I figure what the heck I'll check the truck one more time can't hurt maybe we missed seeing the keys... and as I'm giving up on that as a lost cause out comes the guy who said he'd have the truck ready. He was just about to move it as he's locking up for the night. WHEW. Un-frell us.

Then there's the part where we realize he's forgotten to give us the moving pads we rented so we have to turn around and go back and Pygment has to block him on his way out the driveway so he will go back, unlock his store and give us HIS shop pads since Budget has now frelled him by not putting the pads in the truck the way they're supposed to.

Oh, and my parents get frelled because they're waiting for us at the hotel while we're spending our time getting pads and then getting frelled (again) by PennDOT who decide to take out the bridge we need to get from the rental place to our hotel and send us on a long and pointless roundabout detour.

Let's hope the trip home is less... eventful.