Can confirm, looks like forcing my traffic through Texas instead (from central NC) means I'm not hitting the problem node. Tracert looks much more normal:

Tracing route to 204.2.229.10 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 10.254.60.1
2 34 ms 34 ms 34 ms 10.254.254.1
3 34 ms 34 ms 34 ms 10.255.254.210
4 35 ms 36 ms 35 ms vl1.csw1-rin1.linode.com [45.79.12.201]
5 36 ms 36 ms 35 ms if-0-0-4-0.gw1.rin1.us.linode.com [45.79.12.0]
6 36 ms 35 ms 35 ms ae-0-100.gw2.rin1.us.linode.com [45.79.12.9]
7 36 ms 36 ms 36 ms 199.245.16.65
8 36 ms 38 ms 43 ms ae-11.r21.dllstx14.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.114]
9 78 ms 81 ms 79 ms ae-2.r25.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.154]
10 83 ms 83 ms * ae-5.r24.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.146]
11 86 ms 86 ms 86 ms ae-4.r00.scrmca02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.57]
12 86 ms 89 ms 87 ms xe-0-1-0-1-1.r00.scrmca02.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [192.80.16.2]
13 * * 86 ms 204.2.229.230
14 81 ms 81 ms 81 ms 204.2.229.10