Driving in New England
Nov. 29th, 2007 01:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
averygoodun42Driving in New England is always an adventure, and nothing epitomizes the experience like the center of New England itself, Boston.
This week, Geoff has been going down to Boston for work. The first part is easy. Take a highway to a freeway and get off on another highway which leads right into the city.
The problem is, the city itself is laid out like a maze. Streets change their direction, both by the compass and by flow, at random. So what seems a relatively straight shot by the map is, in fact, a nightmare of navigation.
Boston is why GPS was invented.
Add to that a crazy mix of lots and lots of Massholes (the technical term for drivers in the state of Massachussetts, though the etymology could have something to do with the citizens of Athole... I don't know. All I know is that they're a bunch of mergerers), lack of signage and no visibility, and really, it is a nightmare.
So, as I said, Geoff has been driving down there this week. The first day he borrowed a coworker's GPS to get to the site, but called me to ask for directions, 'cause he'd had to take a detour, and the GPS didn't like that, and he didn't know the end point address.
So, I gave him the address of the site, and he got there just fine.
Second day, now GPSless, he called to let me know that he wasn't lost. He knew just where he was. He called back ten minutes later, however, asking how to get there from where he was. He'd taken the wrong turn, which, in Boston, is lethal. three right turns will not necessarily get you back where you started.
So, computer at hand, I guided him down a named alley to the proper streets, and he got there happily enough. He was super happy, because he'd woken me up early that morning to ask my advice on something I really didn't want to think about, but which, once presented, I couldn't stop thinking about, meaning that there was no hope of going back to sleep. Which annoyed me.
He was happy because I didn't just abandon him to the wilds of Boston, but helped him out. If he hadn't been joking, I would have been insulted, as nothing short of infidelity would tempt me to abandon him in that morass.
Anyway, today he left for Boston again, this time after only a few hours of sleep (he got home around 4 this morning), and three hours later, I received another call for help.
The really funny thing about this is, each time, he was less than a mile from the site when he called. Okay, not the first time, but the other two. And the really funny thing is that he got lost in the same area. He recognized the street names this morning, just couldn't get there from where he was.
And reading the map, it's obvious that it wasn't his fault!
Just for fun, look up Mapquest starting at Boylston and Charles Streets, with the end destination being East Cambridge across the Longfellow bridge to the north, northwest. Be sure to zoom in, after you've tracked out what seems a reasonable path.
Hint: Bowdoin. Say it! It's fun!
This week, Geoff has been going down to Boston for work. The first part is easy. Take a highway to a freeway and get off on another highway which leads right into the city.
The problem is, the city itself is laid out like a maze. Streets change their direction, both by the compass and by flow, at random. So what seems a relatively straight shot by the map is, in fact, a nightmare of navigation.
Boston is why GPS was invented.
Add to that a crazy mix of lots and lots of Massholes (the technical term for drivers in the state of Massachussetts, though the etymology could have something to do with the citizens of Athole... I don't know. All I know is that they're a bunch of mergerers), lack of signage and no visibility, and really, it is a nightmare.
So, as I said, Geoff has been driving down there this week. The first day he borrowed a coworker's GPS to get to the site, but called me to ask for directions, 'cause he'd had to take a detour, and the GPS didn't like that, and he didn't know the end point address.
So, I gave him the address of the site, and he got there just fine.
Second day, now GPSless, he called to let me know that he wasn't lost. He knew just where he was. He called back ten minutes later, however, asking how to get there from where he was. He'd taken the wrong turn, which, in Boston, is lethal. three right turns will not necessarily get you back where you started.
So, computer at hand, I guided him down a named alley to the proper streets, and he got there happily enough. He was super happy, because he'd woken me up early that morning to ask my advice on something I really didn't want to think about, but which, once presented, I couldn't stop thinking about, meaning that there was no hope of going back to sleep. Which annoyed me.
He was happy because I didn't just abandon him to the wilds of Boston, but helped him out. If he hadn't been joking, I would have been insulted, as nothing short of infidelity would tempt me to abandon him in that morass.
Anyway, today he left for Boston again, this time after only a few hours of sleep (he got home around 4 this morning), and three hours later, I received another call for help.
The really funny thing about this is, each time, he was less than a mile from the site when he called. Okay, not the first time, but the other two. And the really funny thing is that he got lost in the same area. He recognized the street names this morning, just couldn't get there from where he was.
And reading the map, it's obvious that it wasn't his fault!
Just for fun, look up Mapquest starting at Boylston and Charles Streets, with the end destination being East Cambridge across the Longfellow bridge to the north, northwest. Be sure to zoom in, after you've tracked out what seems a reasonable path.
Hint: Bowdoin. Say it! It's fun!
