Since the start of my new job (two weeks ago), I have once again returned to the often stressful and unavoidable companion of working at a non-local job – the daily highway commute.

My previous employment was accessible via back roads and local routes, allowing me to skip the daily grind of interstate highway traffic, but alas – those “salad days” are over.  I must now commute along one of the more notorious local interstate highways, I-81.  For those of you not familiar, let me set the stage for you.

My main transportation arteries consist of two major interstate highways – I-70 (which runs east to west), and I-81, (which runs north to south).  Since the junction of these highways is vital to interstate transport, there are many, many large warehouses along both of these corridors which handle all sorts of goods and freight traffic that dispenses products and materials all over the Eastern Seaboard region of the US.

Transport means trucks – lots and lots of trucks.  Panel trucks, pick-up trucks, work trucks, tractor-trailers, and double tractor-trailers.  They are all either trying to deliver product or going to pick-up product. Every one of them seems to be late for something, as evidenced by their speed and posture on the roadway.

Next there are the state laws.  I-81 passes through four states (Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia) in about one hour’s travel time.  The speed limits for each state are different, as well as in different places, so you could find yourself in a 55 MPH zone one minute and a 70 MPH zone just a few miles down the road in different places. Translation? It’s a free-for-all on the road, speed-wise.

Lastly there are road conditions and construction.  On my route, there is a multi-year project to rebuild the main bridge on I-81 over the Potomac River – no small undertaking.  There are also widening projects (from two lanes to three) in many places in West Virginia, so there are concrete barriers up all along the highway at different points (as well as their adjusted speed zones for construction). Potholes, missing road shoulders, and tire debris (see tractor-trailers above) also dot the driving landscape.

Got all of that?  Good.

Now, I have to travel about forty miles to get to my new work destination – moving from Maryland into West Virginia and also crossing the Potomac River on the bridge that is under construction, as well as going through a section of road being widened from two lanes to three on my one-way trip.

As you can guess, even though the speed limit is only 55 MPH in the construction zones, it should come as no surprise to anyone who commutes that the “55”painted on that speed limit sign is a joke.  Even with photo enforcement and the threat of doubled-fines (and adding in the fact that the roads are NOT in great shapes due to all of the ongoing roadwork), if you’re not going at least 60, you’re gonna get run over.

Once we have cleared the construction, made it into West Virginia (where the speed limit is 70 MPH), and reached the orange “end of road construction” sign (which happens to coincide with the highway opening up from two lanes to three), each morning it feels like someone has dropped the green flag at Daytona International Speedway.  In other words – it’s on.

For the next twenty miles, it’s like being in a ‘Mad Max’ movie as cars bob and weave on the highway and trucks jockey for position.   I’m talking “both hands on the wheel at ‘ten and two’, lean forward, and hunker down” kind of driving.  I have to watch for tractor-trailers drifting in an out of their lanes, cars suddenly changing lanes with no turn signal indication, and being passed on either side (and sometimes the shoulder) by vehicles going in excess of 90 MPH.  It will test your mettle, and if you suffer from road rage, it will also test your patience.  I’m a pretty calm driver, but even I have been known to hurl insults at a passerby that would make my former colleagues in the warehouse proud.  God be with you if there’s rain or snow added into the mix. It is no place for the weak or timid.

I pull off at my exit and take a calming breath, knowing I have made it to work another day unscathed.  I need the walk into the plant from the parking lot to calm down.

Then I get to do the whole thing again (in reverse) once I make my way home at night.

Just in case, I upped my employer-sponsored life insurance policy a few levels during my on-boarding process, as well as adding in “accidental death and dismemberment” coverage.

You never know.