Ever been late for Shabbos?

amother

Springgreen

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 8:50 am

We were invited to friends in NJ for Shabbos, and we hit major traffic on our way. We realized while we were on the highway that we weren't going to make it to them in time for shkiah. My husband called his Rav, and we were told we should continue driving even after shkiah because it was a sakanah for us to stop. I called my friend and had her light candles on my behalf. We got there about 15 minutes after shkiah and just grabbed everything and jumped out of the car. It was the most stressful erev Shabbos ever, and I felt so guilty (we should have left earlier/I should have told my husband not to take that route/I don't even know why) and icky.

amother

Moonstone

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 9:32 am

Dh was supposed to stay at the hospital with my fil over shabbos.
The plan was for him to drive my 7th month pregnant self and our toddler to my sister 1.5 hours from the city then turn around for a 40 minute drive to the hospital. We left with plenty of time to spare. But there was crazy traffic, blocked off roads and detours thru Manhattan and NJ.
We ended up on the NJ21 and finally ot was empty. Only to notice it has LIGHTS every 1/4 miles and those weren't short lights.

I ended up at my sil a min before zman. I grabbed the baby, and my nephew grabbed the bags.
Dh sped off to go to the hospital. He had asked what he was supposed to do if he comes upon shkia and he's not there yet.
He arrived literally a min b4. (It's a 15 minute drive) dropped the car at the valet. Paid a HEFTY price for parking as it's an hourly rate mostly for appointments or short visitors amd walked up the stairs.
It was a stressful shabbos becuase she didn't have a crib and my toddler was very high maintenance, extreme active and mischievous. And I could barely move and was so uncomfortable.

As a kid we had a similar story. We left 4.5 hours before zman shevuos for an hour and 20-30 minute drive. But there was a massive exodus and we weren't the only ones on our way. There was absolutely crazy traffic. We arrived at the rentam 15 minutes after zman (that's 3 min b4 shkiya). Some of us were covered in barf from the terrible way. There were little kids crying teenagers tandruming while shlepping things in.... ladies running to tzind and men running to set the blech/crockpot/air/lights. Aaaah. Then we had a 3 day yumtov......
I'll never forget, on the drive my father freaked out behind the wheel for the first time.
We were in a big van right next to a tracker trailer. The lanes were super wide. And suddenly my father sees a really small 2 door sedan with 4 adult men inside squeeze in between us and the tracker trailer. He gave a little jump and gripped the wheel hard muttering under his breath "zei vilen shtarben?" (They want to die?)
For me it was such an interesting experience. It's the only time I've seen my father do that little jump and the sarcasm was so out of character too.
My father was a very good driver and took some crazy risks back in the day without issue. But that was just next level. We eneded up driving onto the same street an hour later and they were just in front of us.