It’s late and I’m exhausted but I have thoroughly enjoyed the first day of the blog summit. It was fun putting names with faces and chatting with bloggers from all over the state and on both sides of the aisle. Waldo has more details in his post here.
Oh – and let me make a case for needing some transportation money here in Hampton Roads. Whenever I travel, I use a Garmin Nuvi because I have a horrible sense of direction. This device always takes me directly where I want to go. One thing that it does is calculate how long it will take me to get to my destination, giving me an arrival time based on where I am, the speed I’m driving and so forth. After gassing up my car, the Nuvi said I would arrive at Sorensen at 3:06pm. Good, I thought, as I would have time to check into my hotel before registration began at 3:30. Of course, there was the obligatory HRBT delay. Coming out of the tunnel, Nuvi adjusts my arrival time to 3:34pm. Guess I’ll have to check into the hotel afterwards. Then I hit that patch on I-64 where it goes from 4 lanes down to two. Another slow down. On the other side of that, Nuvi says arrival at 3:44. A little bit further down the road (before the Ft. Eustis exit), traffic slows again. This time, there is a tractor trailer truck on the other side of the road lying on its side. By the time I clear that, Nuvi says 3:53pm. I actually arrived at just about that time. Traffic cost me 47 minutes today, not to mention the extra gas and aggravation.
How much did Hampton Roads traffic congestion cost you today?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Hi Vivian,
I’m a Norfolk native that currently lives in Arlington. I had a speaking engagement at the Philippine Cultural Center in Virginia Beach during an event that started at 7pm. So I figured I could leave NoVA around 3:45pm and be there maybe a little after the start, but plenty of time before my speaking slot.
Well, traffic started in Arlington on 395-S and was bumper-to-bumper til Quantico. I expected as much, but then after a few minutes at 60mph I encountered another the slow down which continued until Fredericksburg. Then on 64-E there was a slowdown in York and James Co.’s. Okay, I was going to be an hour late, but in VA Beach in time for my speaking slot.
THEN I got to the HRBT…I was sitting in my car at a standstill and not moving an inch. That’s when I wanted to scream!
I made it to the PCC 5mins after my slot. A friend of Tim Kaine was in the audience. My opening line was to him that we needed to get Tim some help with the House so we can get started with our Transportation fixes. That got a lot of laughs.
I estimate that I lost 2 1/2 hours to congestion.
Thoroughly enjoyed meeting you last night. You are a very gracious lady, and I wish I had been able to stay over and take in today’s events.
Hi Joe – I certainly understand the frustration. I had to drive back to Norfolk today from Charlottesville. Same story, just a different direction.
I’m Not Emeril – It was so cool to meet you as well as some of the other bloggers. Thank you for your kind words. I had a great time hanging out with you guys.