spencer rifle
Grandmaster
Led a bus trip to near Carbondale for the eclipse. I57 was somewhat congested on the way down, but we still got there in plenty of time. On the way back, the first 27 miles took us 3.5 hours. And it showed no signs of getting any better. We had extra food and water, and our own restroom. And GPS, along with several smart phones, which turned out be not worth too much. One of the riders had a rather detailed southern Illinois map. While the GPS was handy for telling us where the congestion was and about how long it would take, it was not good at finding realistic alternatives. We could see a parallel road it was recommending, but that traffic was moving no faster than the I57 parking lot.
The only real way we found effective alternatives was with the map. We used the GPS to double check, but it kept trying to get us to go its way. We ended up on secondary (and smaller) roads to avoid the apocalyptic traffic jam and made "good" time. Took 7 hours to get there and 12 to get back. We talked to an Illinois cop around 10 PM and he said I57 was still jammed. Yow.
The only real way we found effective alternatives was with the map. We used the GPS to double check, but it kept trying to get us to go its way. We ended up on secondary (and smaller) roads to avoid the apocalyptic traffic jam and made "good" time. Took 7 hours to get there and 12 to get back. We talked to an Illinois cop around 10 PM and he said I57 was still jammed. Yow.
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