Sinkhole Delays Our Trip

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As many of you know, I frequently visit Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, which is normally about an hour and a half drive from my home. This past Friday, an impromptu trip was taken as a result of a favorable work schedule for both my daughter and myself, not to mention an absolutely gorgeous day to be out at the theme parks. And on top of that, Disney's Epcot theme park is hosting its annual Flower and Garden Festival, a must see for flora lovers of all types. We got an early start and were excited to be able to spend a day sampling all the wonderful festival foods and drinks, as well as the chance to enjoy the many colorful plants and topiaries on display. However, the 1.5 hour trip ended up taking us 4 hours to get there. Toll Road 429 in Orlando--which is our super secret shortcut back way into Disney World--had to shut down 3 of its 4 lanes of southbound traffic after a sinkhole opened in the roadway. When I say 3 of its 4 lanes, in reality it was all three of the travel lanes that had to be shut down. Luckily (if there is a such thing in this situation), the sinkhole occurred right at a toll plaza, and the "4th" lane that remained open was the cash only lane for paying tolls. So all traffic had to be re-routed over to the cash lane. As any of you are aware of the difficulties of merging three lanes of rush hour traffic down to one lane, you can imagine what a chaotic scene it was, and why it took so long to get past the area. It was agonizing. Not just because it was cutting into our Disney time at the parks, but because sitting there for hours not moving was painstakingly boring. And we were starving, since we didn't eat before leaving because we wanted a hearty appetite for all the food we planned on eating at Epcot. The only bright side to the situation was that all tolls were suspended due to the sinkhole opening right at the toll plaza. I'll take a win any way I can get it. lol Thankfully, the sinkhole started as a depression in the roadway, so transportation officials realized what was probably happening before the sinkhole opened and swallowed any vehicles. That could have been disastrous at rush hour with traffic moving at about 65-70mph. They were able to close the lanes before the sinkhole opened into a large pit. Kudos to them for being so observant and fast-acting when the situation arose. This was not my first encounter with a sinkhole, but the first time I've seen it firsthand happen on a major highway. Hard rains several days beforehand probably caused the ground to give way. Other than traffic accidents, have any of you ever been delayed for long periods of time while traveling on highways? If so, what was the reason? By the way, the delays didn't ruin our trip, as we had just the perfect amount of time to see and do everything we wanted to do while we were there. So, even with the traffic delay, it ended up being a wonderful day.