Tire....d of I-95, take 301.

I am back home in New Jersey (NJ).
Now my 'batteries' are recharged, after a nice long sleep. Ahhhh.

I rolled into my driveway about 2:30 am. this morning
and felt compelled to unload huge 6 plastic
containers I had tied to my roof rack.
I also HAD to get any cold sensitive items inside including;
camera, lenses, printer & inks.
I also wanted to get my computer and external harddrives inside.
The challenge was getting to these items,
as they were surrounded by other items on all sides.
By the time I finally got to bed, it was 6 am.
Needless to say, I was out cold the moment my head my pilllow. ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The drive north had several challenges to overcome,
likely most due to my severe overpacking.

With all the added weight & wind resistance of the 6 large storage containers
tied to the roof rack,
it was extremely difficult to shift into 5th gear.
In fact, I drove almost the entire time in Florida (FL) and part of Georgia (GA)
in 4th gear.
Indeed, the entire trip I couldn't shift into 5th gear, if I was on any type of incline.
The car just progressively slowed down until I had to downshift to 4th gear,
or even 3rd gear in some instances.

It also did this the entire trip UNLESS I shifted into 5th gear at exactly 50 mph,
even if I shifted into 5th gear above 50 mph.
It took me a long while by trial and error to figure this out.
I'm glad I did finally figure this out, or I would have spent a lot more gas $.

The second challenge was how to bypass the hell known as Washington DC area.
Now, this is not another political blog at all.
I'm referring to the ridiculous amount of traffic in that area.
It usually adds about 4 hours to the trip.

In the past I've tried going east and taking the Chesapeak Bay Bridge,
but that's got a lot of traffic too and somewhat pricey.
Once I tried going west and taking Route 81.
While scenic, that took me too far out of the way.

This time I stopped at one of Virginia's visitor travel places
on I-95. One of the women there asked me if I needed "any
help with reservations or areas of interest."
I told her, "no, but I'm travelling to NJ. Would you kindly tell me
how to avoid the hell-hole known as DC." ?

She chuckled a bit and said, there is quite a bit of traffic there
and today is Friday, so it will be even worse.
She suggested I "take the Chesapeak Bay...."

"Nope, nope, I've done that and it's too pricey and there's a bunch of traffic."

"Well, you could try route 81...."

"Nope, Nope. Too long & far out of the way."

"OK, well some people like Route 301."

"Hmmm. I've never tried that. Tell me about it."

"Well, there are quite a few lights and it's not a highway,
but there's not much traffic and it is 4 lanes."
She proceeds to draw in magic marker a line highlighting route 301
on a new VA map.

"Sold ! Thank you."

It was the best travel advice I've ever been given.
There was practicly no traffic at all, except when you
go through several towns and even then, the small amount of traffic is
all waiting for traffic lights that take 2 minutes.

First I passed a military base.
Then, I saw a flock of vultures feeding off a deer carcass, probably road kill
that wandered off road a bit.

Somewhat ahead I noticed what appeared to be an adult bald eagle
flying parallel to the road.

(continued in the first comment below)