Follow-up: I traced it about 15 times and reached the end node in an average of 46 msec which is certainly fast enough, and not what I expected. It seems that whatever is slowing down my screen from loading happens after the connection is made to Freerepublic. It could be queuing but I doubt it. I didn't see any special or suspicious routing either. It looks like the route from my location is fine. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitching about Freerepublic. I would be lost without it. I just wanted to see if I could ascertain anything that might help with people who are complaining.
I’m getting 80ms intervals. I checked some other major sites and they average between 27ms and 45ms.
Does Ipad/cell phone traffic get routed through different servers? Perhaps that would explain some people saying they have no problem that route.