Road Trip. Day 8. Sunday, May 9. Rosie's Problems With Drawbridges. Make Like A Ferry. Have A SHEDYOOL!

>>>Rosie Rant<<< Every time Mr. Hawthorne and I leave the Outer Banks, on a Westerly route, we go over the Alligator River Bridge. I've blogged about it before because the compass on my truck goes crazy, and I attribute it to the Mother Ship Below. Just found this Historic Bridges of the US site. Check out the ratings. There's another problem with Alligator River Bridge: It is a draw bridge. And last Sunday afternoon on our way home, we were stopped on the Alligator River Bridge so 2 Pleasure Boats could go through. For about 15 minutes. And we got there when the first boat was entering. A second boat quickly followed it. The boats, on a Northerly course, were at least 3/4 - 1 mile away when the bridge finally closed. Apparently, these Gas Guzzling Pleasure Boats can approach a North Carolina HIGHWAY at any time and STOP traffic. Judging on how long the bridge took to close after the boats went through, I surmised the bridgemaster might have been hailed while the Pleasure Craft were a mile or so out. And the bridgemaster opened the locks and stopped traffic for at least twelve minutes before the Pleasure Boats entered the bridgeway. This on a Sunday afternoon about 12 NOON. We waited. And waited. My point is ... These are Gas Guzzling Pleasure Boats. They have nowhere to go and all the time to get there. Why not make the drawbridge like the ferries? On a schedule. They will be open, if needed, at certain hours. If you do not confirm and show up within this time frame, then you can just very well anchor outside until the next scheduled opening. Do NOT stop traffic going to or coming from the Outer Banks for this trifling crap. The boats can wait. When the drawbridge finally opened, I counted at least 50 cars coming OFF the Outer Banks. I don't think that many cars would be coming ON to the Outer Banks at that time. It's an hour or so after check out and several hours before check in. A few hours later, the lanes would have been different. At any rate, considering the minimum 50 cars coming OFF the OB and perhaps 20-40 coming ON to the OB, that's 70-90 cars MINIMUM being inconvenienced for 2 PLEASURE BOATS. Think about this: A lot of people have to wait the ENTIRE time it takes to open and close the gates. Possibly 30 minutes minimum. Some may have to pee. That can be very uncomfortable. Boats are self-contained. They can just anchor out and wait when it's scheduled for the bridgemaster to open. Don't inconvenience and hinder tourists and $$$$ leaving FROM the Outer Banks and coming INTO the Outer Banks for a couple of PLEASURE BOATS who have all the time to do NOTHING. Get outgoing traffic OFF the island. And get the oncoming IN. Quickly and efficiently. For commerce's sake.

Allowing these bridges to open on the whim of a vacationing boater and stopping traffic is just plain bad management. Unless you have to call 911, or there's a tsunami or a hurricane out there (in which case, you should've known and not gone out) the bridge shouldn't have to open for yo ass. >>>Rosie Rant Over<<< Of course, feel free to disagree. We were both quite testy by this time. It was Sunday, Day 8 of our trip. We'd driven over 1300 miles, we were on the last leg home, and we were bitchin' about having to wait for the bridge to open, when the whole time, all we wanted, was to get home.