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SS,
I moved to Houston 4 months ago, am 28, single, and trying to climb; I can't relate to those additional obligations, joys, and stresses of a family just yet, but I can definitely comment on living and driving in NJ off of GSP exit 131, NJTP exit 10. To put it bluntly, it sucks bad. I had an outside engineering/sales job in North Jersey for a little more than 3 years and during those years I averaged somewhere between 35-38,000 miles/year. Some mornings it would literally take me 20 minutes to make the first left turn onto Rt. 1 from my apartment just to get to the NJTP. You'll be on the GSP so you may not have to deal with as much local traffic depending upon the exit you'll be using. Which exit will you be using and what area will you be working in?
40 grand is a nice amount of money though... It would probably be worthwhile for you and your wife to take a day or two off and do some dry-runs. Do some shopping and sight-seeing for 9 or 10 hours and try to drive home; let her see what you'll be dealing-with so she can give informed counsel. Be sure to do one of those runs on a Friday afternoon/evening when everyone is trying to get to 80 and 78 for a weekend escape to PA (connectors like 287 become virtually impassable too).
Which spur will you take? Simple things like stopping for gas can take a 1/2 hour or more if you need it and there's a line. Frequently rest stops will have only 2 pumps open at a time because you can't pump your own gas in NJ and the operators are too lazy to work more than one pump at a time. I purposely avoided the Parkway when possible because people drive like mad men and all the shoulders are gone in some areas to allow-for more lanes. Will you be going through the bottleneck at the Oranges? Could you possible take the Turnpike instead?
I assume you've thought about moving closer like others have suggested--but that's a whole other can of worms.
My single roommate who I rented a house-with for 12 months moved to Clifton because the commute was too bad, and he was only going from Edison. Me? I applied for a project management job within my company (anyplace but North NJ is what I told them)...and my life is much less stressful, if you can imagine.
I'm just not sure that what you're thinking about doing is possible given the density and the hours that you'll want to be working at a new job--if you have bad luck or bad timing some days it could possibly be almost time to leave again by the time you get home. Of course, it sounds like you'll be going in the opposite direction compared to what I mostly did and that might make a considerable difference too--my main thought is that I think you should try it a few times with your wife along for the ride.
Best To You,
Drew
Oh, and don't even think about getting a car with a manual transmission. :)
posted by 67.10.24...
, Fri, 21 May 2004 18:32:34, Fri, 21 May 2004 14:48:24, Fri, 21 May 2004 12:50:17
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