Who here travelled for Thanksgiving? (Richmond, Harrisonburg: home, pre-k, live) - Northern Virginia - Virginia (VA) - City-Data Forum

Bigfoot424 · 11-29-2015, 03:04 PM

I was just wondering who from this NOVA forum traveled, VIA car, this holiday anywhere between last Wednesday and today. (Sunday) I'm talking more than just 20 minutes to Grandma's home. The last time my wife and I traveled on Thanksgiving was pre-kids and from VA to upstate NY. We were engaged (1981) and not yet married. This trip was horrible, especially the return trip on Sunday. I told her she could enjoy herself as I would never travel again on Thanksgiving and have held true to my word. We live off I 81 now in Shenandoah Co but I've kept an eye on Googlemaps and it's been bad. I drove to Wal Mart this afternoon for the wife so we could have popcorn for our movie date in front of our TV.

I got one heluva head scratch for this little trip but in reality I took all back roads and had no traffic but I could see I 81 and it was indeed bad.

So who here ventured out this year?

BTW. The movie was not all that good.

ACWhite · 11-29-2015, 04:08 PM

Hi, Bigfoot424, I hope you had a nice holiday. Flew to visit family in another state; traveling was painless, other than about an hour delay on the flight there.

ChristineVA · 11-29-2015, 04:56 PM

I won't travel either but I did pass over I95 this morning and it was already pretty solid at 10AM going southbound.

My son just left about an hour ago to go from Woodbridge to Harrisonburg. WAZE and some other traffic app said it was a little over 2 hours, yet it was showing traffic on I81 so we shall see...

Ffxdata · 11-29-2015, 05:14 PM

We went down to Greene County from Fairfax on Friday afternoon and got back Sunday afternoon. No traffic although there were more cars on the road than usual. A big police presence too. We took back roads coming back and saw it was a bit hairy through Warrenton but that was all.

tgbwc · 11-29-2015, 06:16 PM

We left for Hershey, PA around 10 a.m. on Thursday and came back Friday evening. Each way was an easy drive just under 2.5 hours. No issues.

yandex · 11-29-2015, 07:45 PM

I traveled to NOVA from NC last week. I drove up on Monday, leaving Raleigh around Noon. Amazingly, I had NO traffic on I-95N. None ... at all. I don't think I've ever driven through Quantico at 70+ mph. I didn't tap my brakes once until I reached my exit (Occoquan).

I headed home on Saturday, leaving Herndon at about 10 am. Traffic was a bit congested through a few spots on I-95S, but certainly nowhere near the worst I've ever experienced.

All in all, I think I was very lucky.

choff5 · 11-29-2015, 08:43 PM

Didn't go anywhere this year. Son drove down Thursday morning without a problem. I shook my head this afternoon listening to WTOP talk about backup on 95 between Richmond and Springfield plus a five mile backup at the Harry Nice bridge on 301.

We learned years ago to avoid the Wednesday and Sunday travel days. First experience in driving back from Mass on the NJ Tnpk in the late '70's/early '80's taught us that. Then, about ten years later we got a fantastic airfare to go to Boston, only had to change planes in Newark. Yep, a Nor'easter came up the coast. We got out of Boston but hung up in Newark so the airline put all of us headed to DC on a bus and drove us down. Of course they didn't know where they were going as I wake up to see us circling BWI instead of National. At that point someone went up and directed the driver how to get to National. At least that's where our car was, there were others on the bus who were supposed to be at Dulles. Needless to say by the time we made it home around 2:30 am we just turned off the alarms and made it to work when we could the next day. No, not traveling.

Bigfoot424 · 11-30-2015, 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

I won't travel either but I did pass over I95 this morning and it was already pretty solid at 10AM going southbound.

My son just left about an hour ago to go from Woodbridge to Harrisonburg. WAZE and some other traffic app said it was a little over 2 hours, yet it was showing traffic on I81 so we shall see...

66 and 81 (south) were a mess for hours. There were accidents early on and things jammed up from there. I didn't drive there but kept looking at Googlemaps. Hopefully by evening things lightened up a little.

ChristineVA · 11-30-2015, 04:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

66 and 81 (south) were a mess for hours. There were accidents early on and things jammed up from there. I didn't drive there but kept looking at Googlemaps. Hopefully by evening things lightened up a little.

Well, it took him closer to 3 hours. He did fine until the Shenandoah Caverns exit of I81 where he jumped off. Traffic apps report a major accident at New Market. He took Rt 11 for a bit but even that ended up being bad. I guess it could have been worse.

Bigfoot424 · 11-30-2015, 04:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

Well, it took him closer to 3 hours. He did fine until the Shenandoah Caverns exit of I81 where he jumped off. Traffic apps report a major accident at New Market. He took Rt 11 for a bit but even that ended up being bad. I guess it could have been worse.

Has he ever taken 211 from Warrenton? May not be all that convenient considering where you are but this is a beautiful ride through the mountains and gets you off interstates for a while. But even 211 had a bad crash yesterday east of New Market where all lanes were closed for a bit so that wouldn't have helped.