Tired and frustrated commuters around O'ahu spent yesterday trying to top each other with tales of Tuesday's nightmare gridlock.

"Everybody had their own little horror story," said an exhausted Darleen Kono-Casuga.

She knew traffic would be bad after an Army truck damaged the 'Aiea pedestrian overpass Tuesday afternoon, shutting down all six lanes of the H-1 in the 'ewa-bound direction.

So Kono-Casuga waited in town 2 1/2 hours past her normal 5 p.m. departure time to get home to her husband and two kids in Pearl City.

As she sat in her 1994 Toyota Highlander over the next five hours, Kono-Casuga improvised a route of side streets and major thoroughfares filled with drivers who opted to pull over and wait out the traffic as others rode up on curbs and islands and carved out illegal lanes just to earn a few more feet of asphalt.

At 12:30 a.m., Kono-Casuga finally pulled up at home, knowing she would have to leave for work yesterday morning 45 minutes early to fight through traffic heading in the opposite direction.

But at least she awoke yesterday to concerned greetings from her 15-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son, who went to sleep while she was still battling traffic.

"They were really sweet," Kono-Casuga said. "It was, 'Mom, what time did you get home? What took you so long?' "

NORTH SHORE CLOGGED

At the opposite end of O'ahu, Michele Castillo of Denver also knew traffic would be congested.

So she waited until 11 p.m. to drive her daughter's boyfriend, a soldier, back to Schofield Barracks from their vacation condo at Turtle Bay.

But as she pulled out of Turtle Bay in her rented Dodge Charger, Castillo faced an unforgiving line of bumper-to-bumper lights from Central O'ahu-bound cars, trucks and SUVs that had navigated up the Windward Coast and were clogging Kamehameha Highway to get home via the North Shore.

"It was lights after lights after lights," Castillo said, "just a massive line of cars. I figured that at 11 o'clock at night, there wouldn't be that much traffic. I was wrong."

While people reported plenty of pushy and intemperate drivers, Bryan Cheplic of the city's Emergency Services Department said drivers made room for paramedics and their ambulances.

"Response times were not affected," Cheplic said. "Our drivers know the roads and areas and shortcuts. Everybody was good about getting out of the way. A lot of aloha was showed yesterday."

GOOD FOR BUSINESS

City paramedics normally receive seven to 10 calls for assistance with child births and Tuesday was typical, Cheplic said.

"But everybody was hypersensitive any time they heard about a woman giving birth," he said. "Everybody was so ready to attribute it to the traffic. But it was normal."

Untold drivers wisely chose to stay in town after work, rather than join the gridlock.

The Pagoda Hotel in Pawa'a suddenly found itself with room requests from 130 people "who specifically said, 'I am not driving home. Do you have a room?'" said spokeswoman Lynette Lo Tom.

The kama'aina rate Tuesday night was $87. The 360-room hotel also had to produce 120 unexpected dinners, Tom said.

The Old Spaghetti Factory in Ward Warehouse saw business shoot up 20 percent over a typical Tuesday following a three-day weekend.

"It was definitely busier than normal," manager Jed Miskella said. "We opened at 5 p.m. and it was a very steady pace until about 8:45 p.m."

Ryan's Grill at Ward Centre had twice as much business for a Tuesday after a holiday.

"It was nice," lunch manager Angie Miranda said. From 7 to 10 p.m., Miranda said, "We were twice as busy as we would normally be after the holiday."

Heather and Joseph McLouth didn't have the luxury of pau hana pupu. They were trapped on the No. 1 bus heading through Kalihi to get to Bible study by 6 p.m.

They didn't make it on time.

PEARLRIDGE PIT STOP

While the McLouths said they spent the time waiting patiently, other bus passengers were more irritated.

"Some people were saying, 'Ho, when are we going to get home?'" Heather McLouth said.

Brandon Pai, 16, was aboard the Country Express bus trying to get home to Nanakuli from the Myron B. Thompson Academy in Kaka'ako, creating anxiety for his grandmother, Judy Kalawa, who waited for him at home.

The trip normally takes Brandon only from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.

By 3:30, Brandon was still stuck near Aloha Stadium.

"I kept calling him every hour," Kalawa said. "And for three hours, every time I called him, they were still in front of the stadium."

At 8 p.m., Brandon finally arrived home, hungry, tired and badly in need of a bathroom.

"He said a lot of people jumped out at Pearlridge because they had to go shishi so bad," Kalawa said. "The Country Express doesn't even stop at Pearlridge."

A DOG'S BEST FRIEND

Tom Read's story has far too many twists and turns to chronicle in its entirety. But the short version is that it started out with him trying to pick up one daughter at Kapi'olani Park and another at Hickam Air Force Base to take them home to 'Ewa Beach.

Instead, Read ended up with two extra girls and wound up sending all of them to spend the night at his mother-in-law's home in Kane'ohe, driven there by Read's 17-year-old daughter in his Mazda3.

Read rode home to 'Ewa Beach on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which was being repaired in Mapunapuna, so he could take care of his 3-year-old golden retriever Koa.

When Read finally arrived home after midnight, Koa ran to the nearest tree, lifted one leg to relieve himself, then the other before he was done.

"He was really happy to see me," Read said.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.