Stuck In The Middle With You

It is weird how you become instant friends with people when you are in a crisis. Ok. It wasn't actually a crisis - it was me thinking I could get where I needed to go during a Parkway East closure by using the exits that were still open. You can stop laughing now.

I left the North Shore on Saturday at 12:10 p.m. I proceeded to the Parkway East in an attempt to take the Oakland Exit and arrive at Carnegie Mellon for my son's orchestra performance. My GPS said it would take 6 minutes. Much like the lyrics in the Gilligan's Island theme song - where a three hour tour became years, my six minute jaunt across town took one hour and forty minutes.

I am not familiar with the ins and outs of driving in Pittsburgh. Since I never worked in the city, it never became a place I was intimate with. When I first got my driver's license I was not allowed to drive into Pittsburgh. That was off limits. To get around that, my boyfriend and I would take the Parkway East, exit at Stanwix, turn around and come home - all because we just wanted to catch a glimpse of our picturesque skyline.

12:15 p.m. There was nothing picturesque about where I was stuck on Saturday. As soon as I merged onto the Parkway I knew I was in trouble. The Forbes Exit lane was backed up to Grant Street and that was my destination. I texted my son and told him I might be late. I had 50 minutes. But as I looked around all three lanes filled up quickly. There was no where to go. And nothing to look at. The city was behind me and the view of the river was - Pittsburgh winter. Brown and blah.

12:20 p.m. My first thought was food and my second was that I was pretty much on E, but food first. I had bought my youngest a value pack of raisins the night before. Within seconds I devoured that box and only wished there was a street vendor with coffee and chocolate walking through traffic like the t-shirt guy I saw when the Grateful Dead was in town in June of '95. Today no such luck.

12:30 p.m. It was interesting to watch people in cars near by straining their necks to see what was going on up ahead. We could only guess that an accident out of view had caused the major back up we were stranded in. People were rolling down their windows talking to each other like buddies who they had not seen in a while. When a police officer could not get through the bumper to bumper traffic, he left his car and departed on foot. Yes, this was going to take some time.

12:40 p.m. Because I am a person who is always doing something I was out of my element. Forced to sit somewhere and do nothing is not how I roll. I had Christmas cards to write out, lists to make, online shopping to do, but without the cards and my laptop - the North Pole grinded to a halt. There I was left to sit and observe.

12:50 p.m. In forty minutes, I had not moved. I texted my son and told him I would not be there for his performance. People in front of me started to do the unthinkable. Within this confined space, they were turning around to head in the opposite direction. This prospect seemed like my best bet, since I would soon run out of gas, but it would involve me backing up my van, possibly a 15 point turn, in order to escape the Parkway.

12:55 More and more cars were doing this - the lady next to me rolled down her window and asked if I would be attempting an exodus. (In order for her to leave, I had to leave.) I told her I didn't think so. I said, "I am not so good at going backward."

She was facing the good side of the van - the one with the side-view mirror in tact and without a huge dent in the front. Had she seen those she might not have asked but she said she would guide me through. And she did - letting me know how much room I had. "Keep going", "You're doing good",
"You got this."

At one point I was lined up next to another car waiting his turn to get out. Both our windows were down on this cold, cold day and I asked him if he saw what happened up ahead. He didn't see anything either but assured me it must be an accident.

1:10 p.m. I was in line to make an exit onto Grant Street. The traffic light at the top of the ramp allowed commuters to inch ever so slowly to freedom.  When I finally reached CMU it was 1:40. I missed the performance, but I was able to catch a glimpse of humanity. In a bad situation, the people around me were able to keep their cool and even assist others who they had never met. Times like these make me realize -we are all in this together and a little kindness from a stranger can be a positive keepsake during an inconvenient afternoon.