Of traffic jams and free burritos

Free burritos!
Originally uploaded by justlibby.

[Libby's picture]

With the exception of football weekends and those occasions when I stupidly drive onto Washtenaw during peak hours, I have never been caught in a traffic jam within the Ann Arbor city limits. NEVER.

Until today.

It took me a good TEN minutes to get from the junction at the Whole Foods complex to the new Chipotle on Washtenaw. People, that's a 5-minute WALK away. And why did it take me that long to get from said Point A to Point B? Because Chipotle had its official opening today and were giving away free burritos! Thanks to Rick and Emilee, we've come to like Chipotle very much too, but until today, the nearest one had been in Livonia.

So anyway, I brave the insane traffic, get to the Chipotle complex and had to then park at Denny's which is two blocks away because there were just honking cars everywhere! It's by no means warm today but there was still a ridiculous line round the corner outside the restaurant stretching to goodness knows where. I couldn't get in line with Jude and Libby coz they had already made it into the restaurant and there was no way I was going to brave the marauding horde of hoodie-clad undergrads waiting for their burrito fix. I can't imagine what they would have done to anything that got between them and a free meal and soda. Jude and I ended up sharing one burrito because each person was only entitled to one. It was very good and I have a feeling that given enough motivation, my husband would have hopped back in line in a jiffy :)

The real eye-opener was when we were driving home actually. First, the parking lot was swarming with even more cars and people literally running madly towards Chipotle; then, the jam got even worse than when I had been in it. By this time, it had stretched from the junction of Washtenaw and Huron Parkway all the way to the Huron Hills Golf Course. Ok, that's about a mile long folks.

We're going to wait until the madness dies down and the weather gets better. Then we can sit outside in the sun, sipping lemonade and slowly enjoying my soft taco with pork carnitas and guacamole. Mmmmm... :)