Quoting from email I receive on the PA Turnpike's highway advisory mailing list:

Date / Time: 5/1/2003 8:01:28 AM

Direction: Eastbound
Narrative: Overturned tractor-trailer blocking both lanes between Bedford #145 & Breezewood #161 motorist traveling eastbound should avoid this area, and exit before Bedford interchange.

Sure would be nice if the portable message sign I passed at the Bedford interchange 10 minutes after I got this mail suggested exiting instead of merely telling me of the accident. So I got to read my email and take a nice leisurely mile and a half walk, both in the fast lane. When we started moving an hour and ten minutes after stopping I was pretty sure I'd missed the trip to the Amtrak Training Center I needed to be on a bus for at 12:15pm by Philadelphia International Airport (we started moving again at 9:30 or so, and I was at milepost 155.7 on the turnpike).

By putting only 2 gallons of gas in the car (the fuel gauge apparently broke today) and, um, going faster than I should have, I made my bus with 3 minutes to spare.

Lesson? Don't bother getting up early to go places. Better to just rush at the last minute, you won't do any worse.


Edit: and lesson 2 is "if there's a hint of an accident, get off, or get stuck."