Middle-aged drivers used to get irritated, especially at Uncle Billy who didn’t always sit still when we rolled past. But these days, they can be downright melancholy. What once used to be a chaotic afternoon has become a torturous evening.
Things began to unravel on Thanksgiving Day, when law enforcement officers, military personnel and members of the National Guard patrolled throughout the region. Most New York motorists couldn’t wait to flee from what they perceived as a heavily armed and highly visible armed forces force. What many didn’t understand, and what many now also call a “turkey day”, was that it was not war that was being fought, but a non-traditional one called “turkey day gridlock”.
Their deep hatred of Uncle Billy drew the police, soldiers and National Guard to south Jersey to cope with what seemed like a logistical nightmare.
Through the backroads of Mercer County, Tennessee, only the deafest of ears was left out of the haze of malfunctioning radar and squealing tires as our convoy plowed through a nightmarish scenario: 55 vehicles in the middle of a five-county mass of 3,600 vehicles at rush hour.
Read the full story in The Hudson Reporter.