I'll take the Mid-Ohio Valley, thanks!

Since 1993 my wife and I have made regular trips to Washington, D.C., to visit our daughter while she was in college at American University inside the Beltway and later to visit her and her husband when they began living and working inside the district.

For the last 10 years, and from 1993 to 2001 when we lived in Eastern Ohio, we have driven Interstate 68 from Morgantown to I-70 and then down I-270 to the Beltway into the nation's capital. Over the years we have seen traffic increase and the speed of that traffic go from fast to nearly supersonic.

While the speed limit on I-68 in Maryland is 65 miles an hour and drops to 55 mph on parts of I-270 as it approaches the capital , any motorists driving that speed limit would be a traffic hindrance and undoubtedly would cause an accident as vehicles attempted to swerve around the "slow moving vehicle." Obviously, law enforcement acknowledges the speed limit is merely something to post on signs as I saw many marked cruisers whiz by me as I drove with traffic.

Even I-68 across the mountains in Maryland and West Virginia is little less than a raceway from Cumberland to Morgantown, even in the high winds such as swept across the road this past weekend, causing my wife's Honda to jump several feet sideways when a gust of crosswind struck it.

While some motorists may complain about traffic congestion in the Mid-Ohio Valley or the speeds motorists drive on I-77, there is no comparison to the craziness in Washington where motorists stop in travel lanes to double park, make u-turns in the middle of the street, make right turns on red before stopping, do slow and goes at stop signs , give no right of way to pedestrians or bicyclists and disregard all lane markings ... and I have yet to see anyone get a ticket for any of these things.

While my daughter and her husband love Washington and I like to visit there -- this time we actually got to see our first professional hockey playoff game with the Washington Capitals defeating the New York Rangers -- I never would want to live there. I'll take the much slower pace of the Mid-Ohio Valley any day!