A Traffic Miracle

We were in DC last weekend for our big girl’s birthday. Coming back, we knew we’d hit traffic because the NYC marathon was Sunday. We would normally take the Verrazano bridge (Staten Island to Brooklyn) on the way home, but that’s where the marathon starts so there’s a ton of road closures. When we left, the estimated time was 4 hours 30 minutes, which isn’t terrible, just going a bit further up the Jersey Turnpike, Holland Tunnel to Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge home. As I’m driving, maybe 5 minutes before what would be our usual exit to the Verrazano, Google Maps does the “faster route available” thing. I wish I could have taken a screenshot:

Faster route available
41 minutes faster
Accept?

41 minutes? I couldn’t hit accept fast enough. Our timing was apparently perfect, they had just opened the Verrazano. All the roads before and after, that are usually slow with traffic, were basically empty. It was like driving at 4 am.

Dreams can come true…