What Exit?

New Jersey is not actually known as being the most beautiful state of the US - despite the fact that it goes by "The Garden State," as indicated on each and every car plate. The reputation of not being a nice area is probably due to the fact that many people get to know it from driving through. If you drive through New Jersey, chances are high that you use the New Jersey Turnpike (I95), mostly a highway with 5 or 6 lanes in each direction, or the Garden State Parkway that runs more or less in parallel (with an intersection down South).

The Garden State Parkway runs North-South, and as the highway cuts through the entire state, it is a useful orientation. So if someone in New Jersey would ask you, "where do you live?" and you would reply "Florham Park," chances are that the person asking doesn't know the place. There is an easy way out though: just ask "what exit?", meaning "what exit from the Garden State Parkway do you live at?"

That's what many people do. It comes in quite handy that exits are not enumerated consecutively but by distance. Exit 27 is about 12 miles away from exit 39. In case you need to know, we live at exit 145.


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