Our Very Own Carmageddon...

No, not the 405, just our St. Mary's county roads. As local drivers who ply the roads in our county know, there are relatively few “cross county” routes that get you from the 235 corridor on the eastern side of the peninsula to Route 5 that generally goes along the opposite side. Getting from one to the other limits you to a few options. Route 4 (usually most convenient) in the middle, Great Mills to the south, and on the north “Hollywood – Leonardtown” road. That’s about your only choices.

This (Thursday) morning I had arranged to meet a friend for coffee in Leonardtown at nine o’clock and set out about 8:40. I chose Rte. 4 for my cross county leg. About half way across, I encountered signs of “road work ahead”, closely followed by another “one lane traffic ahead”, then “flagman ahead”. And yea verily we ground to a halt near St. Andrew’s Church where they are constructing an intersection to enable you to drive into the woods. Going in that direction at that time only cost about a six minute delay, so I was in the coffee shop by about 9:15.

After (a Latte and) great conversation solving various problems both global and local along with assessing anxieties, it was time for me to head back home. So I left Leonardtown around 11:10, and decided to go down Route Five in order to check the Oyster Festival sign at the Fairgrounds and verify what dates it had posted for the Festival(they are still last year’s). As reigning King Oyster it is my responsibility to get these things straight. Anyway, my plan was then to go down 5 to Great Mills, then across to 235, turn left and stop at my office for a while.

So, with a little blue Toyota fastened to my bumper I headed south. I could appreciate his frustration, as I was only exceeding the legal speed by 6 mph or so. Anyway, as I crested the hill by Little Flower School, I observed some heavy equipment at the bottom of the hill by the Brass Rail at Flat Iron/Indian Bridge road(perhaps a mere 500 yards from where I wished to turn left on Great Mills Road. As I got closer I saw one of those electric signs with a big blinking arrow pointing left! That was because they CLOSED the road in front of Friendly Tavern to work on the wires over the road. Not one lane, not wait, CLOSED. So I was urgently directed by the nice man in day glow jacket onto Indian Bridge which takes you back north, eventually intersecting Route Four. It takes you WAY back north. Okay, so me and my fellow travelers went past Cecil's Mill, through the country side for however miles, and Whoops! What’s that ahead? A string of 50?, 60?, seemed like 100 cars completely halted. My keen reasoning powers immediately figured it out: Indian Bridge intersects Route 4 WEST of the one lane operation. So most likely the (ticked off) drivers on eastbound 4 would rather die than let anybody in ahead of them (you can’t do that for God’s sake, you’d LOSE!). Hence the huge long backup. So several of likeminded folks and I did the 180 and went BACK down Indian Bridge and X miles, to arrive again at the Brass Rail to find Route 5 still closed. What the heck are these guys doing? No matter, turn right onto Northbound Route 5, retrace all Y miles, back to Leonardtown almost at the point of origination.

While I was enjoying the scenery I saw on the southbound leg, I decided to avoid Route 4 altogether with its one lane restriction, and drove up to Hollywood Leonardtown road (adding a few more minutes and miles). That eventually took me over to 235, and a right turn and more driving eventually got me back to Millstone and the digs. The time was now 12:27, just a little over an hour to complete what should be about a 20 minute trip.

How much is gas?

I was so aggravated it didn't occur to me how i would

DFD