What do you mean we're lost?

Well I'm back on a few different levels. One level, I just got back from London. Another level, it's been a while since I posted. I'll try to post more frequently in the future, but there may be more times where I'm radio silent due to work or travel schedules.

London was great, and is quickly cementing its place as my second favorite city (after NYC). They do need to upgrade their air conditioning capacity, but overall an awesome city. Plus, I have a few friends that live there, so it's always good to be able to spend some time with them, checking out the local English bar scene. On a side note and preview for another post, on both trips to London, I've witnessed random acts of nudity (not my own) in a bar. I'm starting to think its an English thing to get drunk and start taking off clothes in the bar, but will need to look into this further.

This post will focus on the final portion of my trip - the actual trip home from London. How was it? Well I think it's best summarized by the following facts:

London to New York (JFK Int'l Aiport): 3,458 miles; travel time: 6 hrs. 45 min.
JFK Int'l Airport to Bridgewater, NJ: 66 miles; travel time: 2 hrs. 20 min.

How, you ask, could it take 2 and a half hours to get home from JFK? I'll tell you how: my driver was an idiot. Things were going well. The flight got in 5 minutes ahead of schedule, I breezed through immigration and customs, and my driver was waiting right where he should be. We go out to the car and I fall asleep within 5 minutes (we landed at 9pm EDT, which is 2am London time). Next thing I know, I wake up as I feel the car slowing down. Much to my surprise we are pulling into a gas station, and nothing looks familiar. I look at the clock and its 10:30. I start to be concerned, since we should have been in Bridgewater about 15 minutes ago. I get more concerned when the driver says "I'm not lost, I just need to look at my map for a second." Here's the conversation that followed:

Driver: "Do you know anything about 287 ending?"
Me: "What? Where are we?"
Driver: "Well we're in NJ, I was on 287 and it just ended, now I think we're on Route 1&9"
Me: "Were you on 287 north or south?"
Driver: "West"
Me: "287 doesn't go west in NJ, it goes north and south. Where did you get on 287?"
Driver: "Well I took the Outerbridge Crossing and got onto 287. (Shows me his map) See? 287 should go right through Bridgewater."
Me: (Head dropping in digust) "Oh no...that's a different 287. Where are we now?"
Driver: "Well we're in NJ"

At this point I am thoroughly disgusted with the driver. How could you not do your homework beforehand to see that the 287 at the Outerbridge Crossing is not the same 287 that runs through Bridgewater. If you look at a map, it's pretty clear. Well it ended up we had gotten off of 1&9, but were still somewhat close to Rahway. I still don't know how it took us 90 minutes to get from JFK to Rahway, but at least I was able to finally get this guy to Bridgewater.