Accidental Adventures

I was wondering who has had any interesting or educational adventures purely by accident?

What triggered this question is something that happened to me recently. I had a pickup to make in Elizabeth, NJ (not my favorite area). As I was trying to navigate the labyrinth that is the NJ roadway system, I merged onto a very busy roadway and needed to cross all the lanes in a short distance to make a left turn on the correct street. Traffic, mostly trucks, wouldn’t yield so instead of being able to turn, I was forced to continue straight. I was not aware that this was the main way into the Port of New Jersey. I know Laura and some others are used to going into shipyards, but I had never been in one before. I had no idea what to expect or how much trouble I had gotten into. Actually, I found the facility to be very interesting and also somewhat intimidating. However, it turned out that the road I went in on was a big loop and I got spit out right where I came in. Now all I had to do was proceed straight ahead and make my turn, this time a right turn.

That was my accidental adventure that may interest no one but myself. But it was a new experience. I can say from my brief visit that I think driving there everyday would be incredibly depressing. No one in there with a truck is courteous and it seems like dog eat dog.

I’m sure others have ended up somewhere new by accident and it was an interesting experience, if anybody would like to share.

I taught Amazon drivers how to drive step vans (like UPS trucks) in Elizabeth. I'll back you up with us non-New Yorkers about the traffic. Wow!

So you were forced onto an unknown-to-you road. I hope you had some sort of GPS to guide you. You did luck out on getting to continue and go to your destination. Often when you get headed toward a shipyard, an unfriendly guard will stop you and not even allow you to go in to turn around (That's my experience).

Side note about the Elizabeth NJ area: I was driving on a two lane road in an industrial area. Choked in both directions with cars. A flatbed in front of me started an alley dock backing into a truck dock off this road. Cars simply stopped while the flatbed driver did his job. I was amazed at how it all turned out.

I went through something similar in Elizabeth. I got on I78 from I95 and nobody would let me move into the right lane. Turns out, the left lane was an exit and I was forced off.

I ended up traveling the streets of Elizabeth, NJ with doubles until I could find somewhere to stop and map out a way back to the interstate.

It was frustrating, but now I know to get to the right as soon as possible.

Was 1 stop we had to go to maybe three different times. I forget if it was in Jersey or Penn. The first time, this place really isn't on the map. It's a dirt side road, by railroad tracks, only accessible on a right turn. Left side you have to go down a ways til you can turn around and go back to the entrance. Well this tore up path is rocky, and rutted runs along railway tracks about 1.5 miles in to this rock yard looking place. Turns out it's like a drop lot sort of, a REAL PITA getting to.

2nd time, now we knew how to get to it. But it was still a real pain since the entrance is very narrow, and you WILL miss it if you're not familiar. Luckily we only went there 2- times !!

I hated NJ period! most of the roads we were on didn't seem to have been sleeper cab friendly, even a day cab probably can be hard lol. But ya know all of that time trucking helped me here in the Philippines lol they drive crazy as heck, no cops on roads patrolling. I've gotten used to driving like a native, when we need to go into the bigger city for groceries. Just got my Philippines drivers license Thursday hahaha and back home on the mountain awwwww