Just a heads up to those in the Tri-State area on here. Apparently the congestion pricing tolling scanners suck and misread often. I’ve been getting charged tolls when my car has been parked in my driveway the last 2 months. Dispute them as they come and it never gets resolved. Decided to sit on hold for an hour, as I got another last night. I thought my plate was “ghosted”, but no, camera was reading the 7 in my plate as a 9. Because this has happened 19X in 2 months, my plate is now on a manual review list at EZPASS.
Moral of the story is watch your EZPASS account just in case…. I do have some interesting luck from time to time, but something tells me it’s not just me…
I’ve heard the congestion charge scanners are, yeah, not so accurate.
On another note, check your EZPASS. If it’s the old style (size of a pack of cards), call and get a new one. Batteries on those last 10 years at best. My dad was racking up all these VTOLL charges on the account (one account for the family, long story don’t ask), called up the turnpike and they were like, wow, yeah, lets replace those tags (no charge) and they took care of the VTOLL overages.
At the same time, check your plates in the account. It should be the same if the tag is properly read or the plate gets read, but when you get a new plate it isn’t always on your mind to update your account!
Pretty sure that anyone with an area code related to the NYC area gets plenty of scam (not spam; scam) messages about owing EZPass tolls; even those who have moved across country. Although (at least for me) they’ve died down recently.
It’s also huge in Hawaii. I read (or more likely saw) something about this; I don’t remember the details, but it is largely based on US military during WWII and Korea (which overlapped more than many realize; my father was based in Japan during the Korean war, but as part of the “occupying force” of the WWII treaty).
They even have a huge variety of flavors of Spam, most of which are not officially available in the continental US; although one of my local store carries about 7-8 of them; I’ve not tried any, because the sodium content is even higher than the regular Spam (and even the “Lower Sodium” version is enough to mess with my BP readings).
One of the larger regrets about our trip to HI this Spring is that it was so freaking busy with the tour stuff we never got to hit a McDonald’s for a Spam sandwich.
And, yes the story directly links the love for Spam to military presence and the trading of supplies with the locals.
“They even have a huge variety of flavors of Spam, most of which are not officially available in the continental US”
If you ever get in the area the Spam Museum in Austin, MN is a nice stop. We went out of the way to go there on the way to one of my favorite spots in the US – the Pipestone National Monument.
Both are FREE and, yes, I am that cheap.
The Spam Museum has a gift shop where you can buy LOTS of varieties.
I don’t remember McDonald’s selling Spam sandwiches when I was there (many years ago), but I remember having Portuguese Sausage and Rice for breakfast; it was really good, something I don’t often say about McD’s (or any fast food chain really)
