The Toll Booth Saga

You all know that I'm on a massive road trip. We've been to Arizona, New Mexico, Iowa, and we're now in New Jersey. Visiting with friends has been lovely; getting to them, not so much.

The jaunt from Arizona to New Mexico was enjoyable. I looked forward to visiting with family friend I hadn't seen in over ten years. It was great, we just picked up where we left off. After several fun-filled days we left New Mexico and headed for Iowa.

Things were going fine, great weather, clear roads. Then we reached Kansas. Entering the state we went through a toll booth and accepted the little white piece of card stock with the magnetic information strip on the back and thought nothing of it. We later pulled into a KOA for the night. I should have known that the bold, bright red lettering across the top of the campsite map indicating the storm shelter was an omen for things to come.

Oh, the weather was fine. not a cloud in the sky. We even spied a gaggle of geese on the way out of the campgrounds the next morning. We got back onto the highway without any problems. Traffic was good. Off in the distance we could see another of those toll booths. No worries, right, we'd just pull up to the window insert that ticket we received the day before, pay the toll, and be on our way. Ha! No one told us it would cost us $23 to leave the state! OMG, $23 just to drive through!

We paid it and went on to Iowa. The scenery along the way was beautiful. We arrived in Iowa with little trouble and spent a week with another wonderful friend. At the end of the visit we started out for New Jersey.

We traveled through Indiana, another pleasant drive. We paid a small toll in Ohio and made it all the way to Pennsylvania and spent the night there. The KOA was great. They even had a small petting zoo, two goats and a cow, well, technically he was a bull.

We left the next morning and encountered another toll booth, because the last one we encountered in Ohio had charged so little we thought nothing of it. We accepted the ticket and traveled on. Little did we know this would be more of a Kansas experience.

Leaving Pennsylvania we arrive at the booth at the state's border, inserted the ticket and waited for the total due. $32!!! We they kidding? We had to pay them $32!

Now we were wary of any toll booths that loomed on our horizon. We arrived in New jersey and were making our way to the place we would store the RV during our visit. We missed our exit and had to travel through another toll booth to get off the highway and turn around. Considering our recent experience, we approached it with a bit of anxiety. The toll wasn't that bad compared to what we'd paid in Kansas and Pennsylvania. We exited, made a U-turn and got back on the highway. Can you believe it? They charged us to go back through even though we'd paid them less that ten minutes before. After a small discussion we paid the toll and headed back in the other direction.

No one told us we couldn't take the exit we needed from that direction, so off we go, make another U-turn, and get back on. What do you think was standing right there between us and the exit we needed? You guessed it, another toll booth. Do you think they would let us through considering we've now paid them a whopping $30? Noooo. We has to fork over another $15 to get where we were going. That makes $45!!!! OMG.

Now we know how they're planning to resolve the national debt---TOLL BOOTHS.