A bridge too far

As Gretchen mentioned in her earlier post, there was a bad accident on the Bay Bridge, which is the only direct way to get from DC across the Chesapeake Bay to the eastern beaches. Basically, an 18-wheeler plunged off the bridge, and the bridge is down to one lane headed east because a crane is trying to get the truck out of the water. I first heard from Gretchen at 12:20pm, and she had just hit the traffic backup 8 miles from the bridge. Two hours later, she had moved only seven miles and was at a complete standstill. And I think she had to pee. On top of all that, what she alluded to in her post but didn't come out and say directly is that she's terrified of this bridge on the best of days. (Bridges don't generally bother me, but this is one of those bridges that goes pretty high and you just feel like your car is going to be pulled off the edge, and to make matters worse they have lanes going in opposite directions on the same narrow spans. Coincidentally, there was a story in yesterday's paper about phobias that discussed the fear people have of driving over that particular bridge.) The only alternative would have been to drive a couple of hours out of the way north to get around the bay--and, as it turns out, this would have actually saved time. Ugh.

UPDATE: While typing this, Gretchen called to say she'd driven about a half-mile in the last hour. And she still has to pee. But at least she's now a half-mile from the toll plaza, Mädchen is being good, and I try to keep reminding her that a glass of wine tonight may taste better than any she's ever had...

UPDATE 2: Good news--they made it. Nothing like a scheduled 3-hour drive that ends up taking 6+ hours instead...