Long Island Bound

Traveling for the holidays is always stressful, even when you are very excited to be going. The packing is the most stressful thing for me. However this year I got a fish and she is not one to travel, so I have to rely on my friend to come over and feed her while I am away. Thankful for awesome friends and a little stress relief on that front.

Packing for New York had been incredibly stressful. I have never been to New York and I have never been up north in the winter. I don’t exactly do well in the cold. Here in North Carolina where the winters are considered mild, I bundle like crazy. Anything under 70 degrees and I am chilly. I sleep with an 18 pound weighted blanket AND 3 throw blankets AND my comforter. So I can only imagine how cold I will be in New York. I don’t exactly own snow gear so I am just packed all my jackets and some boots and now hoping for the best. It was 27 degrees on arrival.

I will be here nine-ish days but my luggage looks like I am moving in. Along with all my clothing, I also bring my own pillow, blanket, and snacks. I have my large camera backpack with all my camera gear and a backpack with my laptop, kindle, my Nintendo Switch and all the charging cords. Basically all around way too much stuff for one trip, but I would rather over pack than under pack.

The drive up was interesting. I have never driven in the North East before. There were a lot of differences from the Southern highways I have traveled. The EZ pass express lanes were pretty cool. You just get to zip on over into a special lane on the left and bypass a lot of the crazy traffic. The speed limits in those lanes were the same as the regular lanes but because there was barely anyone in the express lanes you didn’t have to worry about getting slowed down by drivers who continuously tap their breaks repeatedly in the fast lane for no reason, slowing everyone down for no reason. All the tolls and toll booths were crazy. Luckily had that EZ pass so it made it go much faster but there were still so many to go through. In North Carolina we have one toll road and there are no booths. They take a picture of your car along the drive and then send you a bill later. I find it less stressful than making sure you have exact change for each booth along the way.

“Driving Safely is my Favorite” Highly enjoyed this quote from the electronic info signs along the highway.

Another big difference I noticed were the large rest stops in the medians between the highways. A lot of them were more than just restrooms and some vending machines. There were multiple with gas stations and restaurants too. I really liked this concept. Having one larger rest stop in the middle made more sense to me than two smaller ones on each side of the highway. Just was a cool concept for highway designs. Didn’t get a chance to stop in one but I would definitely like to stop at least one on the way home.

Once I got in to New York I started getting confused by the highway signs. There were so many abbreviations and acronyms on the signs I had no idea what they were saying. Luckily I was traveling with someone who grew up in New York and knew what everything meant. As an outsider I almost felt like I was trying to interpret a different language to find the right destination. Anyone from the area would be like “duh, obviously SSP means the Southern State Parkway.” I however had no idea what SSP stood for or that it was one of the options to get you to Long Island. I can’t be the only one this confused by the New York highway signs. I was sure this would just be a closer to the city problem. Nope, even on Long Island you come across exit signs for RM. If you’re curious that would be a sign for the Robert Moses Causeway.

What are your thoughts/experiences on the crazy signs? EZ passes/tolls? Rest stops?

~My next few blog posts will be about my time exploring Long Island. Where I went, what I ate, and everything between.

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