I really can’t figure out this state at all.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts you would see that I’m completely lost on why things are done the way that they are here in New Jersey.

What I mean by this is because of what happened on Saturday.  I went to Pennsylvania, with my mother-in-law, to go to Super Wal-Mart.  (There are NO Super Wal-Marts in New Jersey!  YOU HAVE TO LEAVE THE STATE FOR THEM.  That’s another issue for another day!)  This was my second journey to Pennsylvania since moving here.  The problem with going to Pennsylvania, on any of the main roads, is that you have to pay a toll when you enter the state.  Nothing wrong with that, right?  The only thing that bothers me is that you DON’T pay anything when you come back to New Jersey.  (I jokingly say, that Pennsylvania doesn’t charge you for coming in, but New Jersey charges you for leaving.)  This applies when you head to New York and Delaware also. 

Why do the surrounding states hate New Jersey so much?  What did it do to them?  It seems to me that more people are willing to pay to leave this state instead of coming in.  New Jersey gets a bad rap to start with.  (I’m one of those that have a ton of jokes about this state.)

New Jersey isn’t a bad place.  Maybe New Jersey should charge non-residents money for coming into the state.  If they don’t want us there, then maybe we should do the same to them.

First, there were Jughandles.  Then, Tricky Trays.  And now Routes.

At first you may wonder why I don’t understand what routes are.  But, apparently, everyone in New Jersey doesn’t know what a route is.

This sign is for Route 10:

Easy enough to understand right?  So if someone tells you to go head towards Route 10 this would be the sign you would look for.  Simple enough?

Well, apparently, all the roads in New Jersey are routes.  Doesn’t matter what sign they use, they’re all routes.

Just a couple of days ago my mother-in-law was telling me about how to get to a neighboring town and she told me to take Route 287.  Don’t try to look it up on a map.  You’ll never be able to find the route. 

That’s because it’s not a route – it’s an INTERSTATE.

This is what an interstate sign looks like:

Now, I don’t want you to think that this was a fluke or that she accidentally called it a route, but that’s not right.  When we got the directions to all of my son’s away football games EVERY ROAD ON THE PAGE WAS CALLED A ROUTE!  Any road that has a number is a route.

I don’t know why New Jersey uses any other signs.  You’d figure it would be easier if they just made every sign a route sign.  They can just put blank route signs everywhere instead of putting numbers on them.  That would save the state some money.  Does it reall matter what numbers the road are?  They’re all routes!

A jughandle is a side road that allows a driver to make a turn (usually to the left).  The problem with the jughandle is that sometimes they are before the intersection, after the intersection, or there aren’t any at all and you can make your standard left turn.

New Jersey is littered with these jughandles. 

Just a few weeks ago I was heading to the local grocery store for the first time since I moved here.  Unfortunately, for me, I missed the right turn into the parking lot, so I figured I would go up to the next intersection  and make a U-turn.  So, being the typical non-NJ driver, I got into the left lane and proceeded up to the next intersection.  I was greeted there by a no U-turn sign.  This forced me to go up to the next intersection, and over to the right lane to hit the jughandle.

Unfortunately, the jughandle forces you to basically do a “P-turn” and face you back at the intersection.  After waiting what seemed to be an eternity at the light I was facing the opposite direction of the grocery store.  This meant – another jughandle!  With another jughandle meant another light.

So, when traveling in New Jersey remember to pay attention where you’re going.  Just for missing one turn I lost 15 minutes attempting to ‘turn around’.