Summer is the time when so many of us hit the road for a vacation, but people who visit or drive through Connecticut can sometimes run into some trouble.
A change should come Monday as "a relief" for travelers, state-operated highway rest stops will soon be open around the clock.
NBC CT Reporter Caitlin Burchill watched countless travelers stop at the Interstate 91 northbound Middletown rest area to use the bathroom. It is closed between 3:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. Hours so bizarre most people we talked to didn’t believe it and tried to enter anyway.
“I mean it looks like it’s open. The lights are on, but the doors are locked and you can’t use it,” Jon Stephan of Westford, Massachusetts said.
“This is the second time I stop here and try to use the bathrooms with my kids and it’s closed. For me as a girl, it’s a little— I don’t want to use those potties over there,” Mily Brieva of Haverhill, Mass. said on her way home from visiting family in New Jersey.
We met lots of out-of-staters frustrated that they had to relieve themselves in a porta potty.
“They are in disgusting condition. The graffiti is really awful,” Stephan’s 16-year-old daughter Paige said.
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Despite most travelers’ disgust, “doesn’t really matter to me,” said 14-year-old Gabe Hill of New Hampshire, on his way back home from a basketball tournament in Pennsylvania.
Hill's father Jim said they had been driving for about seven hours.
As of 8:30 a.m. on July 1, the state’s seven rest areas will now be open 24/7.
“That will be great especially for the people who like to travel with their family in the summer. It will be terrific,” Brieva said.
More folks leaving the state with a ...cleaner... impression of our state.
“It’s too bad we’re traveling today instead of tomorrow. We’re a day early I guess. next time it will be better,” Jon Stephan said.
For almost three years, the facilities hours have been limited.
Funding for the round the clock rest areas was included in the latest budget.
