the ones that simply take a picture of your plate and send you the bill later.
After returning several weeks ago from an overnight trip to Vienna, WV, I think I mentioned getting lost on my way to the hotel. And I think I mentioned being stubborn and only using GPS (or in my case, Google Maps) as a last resort. I take a weird sort of pride in having a good sense of direction and generally knowing where I'm going...plus being good at following road signs <g>.
What I might not have mentioned was this: at one point, I'd exited the freeway and was following the signs for the hotel, which was supposedly 6 miles away. But I somehow missed, or maybe there never was, a sign indicating I needed to turn right at a light. So I went straight, drove a few more miles and crossed a bridge, only to be greeted by a sign welcoming me to Ohio. Oops! So I turned around as soon as it was convenient and headed back over the bridge, only to see a sign that I somehow missed, or maybe there wasn't one, on the other side that said this was a toll bridge. Now I would've sworn the sign on the side closest to Ohio said cars would be charged $1.75 for crossing this (very short) bridge. And I noted the part on the sign saying they were taking a picture of my license plate and would be sending me a bill later. Fine, OK, whatever.
Today I got my bill...it's $10.50! For crossing that stupid bridge twice within about five minutes and being on it for maybe a total of 10 seconds each way. Grrr. Had the bridge been better marked on the other side ("Hi! You're about to pay a toll to cross this bridge, and on the other side is Ohio!"), I wouldn't have crossed it in the first place. Then again, had I just consulted Google Maps, I wouldn't have even been anywhere near the bridge. Expensive lesson learned *sigh*.
