Comments | kentamundo: Singing the Praises of the Travel Plaza

kentamundo

Singing the Praises of the Travel Plaza

Jan 09, 2010 13:24

All those who have ever spent time on a toll highway are familiar with travel plazas, those gas station / food court / restroom combos. The mere mention of "turnpike" seems to automatically conjure up New Jersey, even though they are present in many other states, such as I-77 through West Virginia. I was driving through there on my way home from ( Read more... )

Comments 15

shiara_ January 9 2010, 18:36:39 UTC

When I was taking the I-90 through New York to get to Albany, I noticed quite a lot of these. I went into 1 of them during my trip, ordered drive-thru in another, and bought gas in a third. And that was enough for me.

kentamundo January 9 2010, 19:59:40 UTC

This is usually a case of "have to" rather than "want to", but I admire your restraint.

shiara_ January 10 2010, 05:09:49 UTC

This is going to sound dumb, but they actually frightened me (I haven't gone into many of them here in Canada). We have similar things here, but they're not as close-together (a), and (b), usually with some standard businesses (i.e., Tim Horton's, McD's, Wendy's). I was more concerned about getting to my destination (Albany) and from it back to Canada that I really didn't care to stop and make a tourist-y sort of thing out of it.

And the toll wasn't all that bad, really, when I think about it. It was about $12.30 USD to get from Buffalo to Albany. Ditto the return. It costs about $13 CDN to go from my workplace to the other side of Toronto (well, a little further - Oshawa area). So bang for mileage buck, the $12.30 was better.

lots42 January 10 2010, 06:40:24 UTC

Little Known Fact: Monopoly Money is in actuallity, genuine Canadian money.

Thread 9

cocoajava January 9 2010, 19:14:15 UTC

I sorta miss the cultural and social value of Travel Plazas, and living in a turnpike mentality, actually. Its either an engrained part of your life, or a mystery. Very little in between. I am suddenly pining for New Jersey, and automatically reaching for 35 cents.

kentamundo January 9 2010, 20:00:32 UTC

You should petition your state leaders to install a toll highway with a travel plaza development plan.

cocoajava January 10 2010, 01:18:39 UTC

Yeaaaaah, we're still hoping for roads without tunnels to China imbedded in em! One step at a time.

lots42 January 10 2010, 06:41:47 UTC

Travel plazas know what their deal is; keep your car running, keep your belly full, a place to poop and provide enough distractions so you don't throttle your kids.

The laser-like focus makes them successful.

Thread 5

lots42 January 10 2010, 06:39:25 UTC

We call them rest stops in the rest of the country.

They are, with a few rare exceptions, awesome. BOOKS OMG