It took me two and a half hours to get to work this morning. Gude Drive was closed, and there was no efficient detour. Finally, I got so low on gasoline that I had to go back the way I came to buy some. While I was at it, I bought a map.

It is not helpful, when one is facing the possibility of getting to work shortly before lunch time, to realize that "you can't get there from here". Since I wasn't getting anyplace anyway, I stopped to ask the opinion of the police officer who was enforcing the road closure.

"I'm sorry - you may be able to find your way out of that little nieghborhood (where I had just been lost along with most of the other overflow traffic), but there really isn't any detour. Everybody is screwed this morning. But if you can back track and find any other route, I'd do that, because this road is closed indefinately"

All righty then.

That, eventually, was what I did, winding a path through the town of Rockville - it's very pretty, and I was going slowly enough to know for sure - over to Rt.270, up, over, and back down.

What a nightmare.