Why didn't someone remind me about New Jersey?

I guess there was no getting around it--going to New Jersey, I mean. I haven't been there in years, and I had deluded myself that going on the Garden State Parkway for a good part of the way would make the rest of the ride more tolerable.  Wrong.  The Garden State Parkway is quite lovely, reminiscent of the Merritt Parkway back in the day, two lanes, tree shrouded, and, if memory serves, trailer truck free. Once we linked from the Garden State to the NJ Turnpike, however, the whole game changed.  First, it was the planes at Newark Airport skimming the overpasses, and then the frenzy of the six lanes of traffic. I'm a Boston driver, after all, and I've driven in Manhattan a number of times, but the Jersey Turnpike tests the mettle of even the most veteran drivers. Then, to top it off, there's the "scenery"-- oil tanks, smoking pipes, freight yards, and the like.  The one difference is that it no longer smells like burning rubber, which it did many years ago. Then you had to try to stop breathing until you reached Philadelphia. Certainly it's a bustling area of commerce, but that's the problem in a way--add bustling to frenzy, and you have a highly charged combination which doesn't lend itself to relaxing driving.  Oh well, guess I'm just not a Jersey girl!