June 28, 2005

Massachusetts Driving (Me Crazy!)


First, thanks to all of you who have been leaving comments! We love to read them and are encouraged by them. This post is validation of my promise to post more frequently if we received more comments. Thanks again!

For those of you unfamiliar with Massachusetts, we live on the "North Shore". Specifically where the red star indicates. Tid bits: we are 15 minutes from 4 or 5 beaches, the town of Hamilton has more horses than people (headquarters fo rthe U.S. Olympic Equestrian team we're told) and about 40 minutes outside of Boston. Traffic is bad out here. The road system does support the amount of traffic... back in 1978. But today's traffic simply overwhelms it. The drivers out here tend to be aggressive, which is good and bad because drivers are fast and efficient but quick to let you know what they think about you both through audio and visual forms of communication. Driving is also difficult out here because of all the small towns. Now, I am use to small towns, but not small towns that keep running one into another. Both in Nebraska and Northern Michigan, the small towns are separated. In addition, there is only one street sign at an intersection, by that I mean I can find out the name of the smaller road that is intersecting the road which I am currently driving on, but it doesn't have a street sign for my road. So, if I am lost, which has happened, it's tough to figure out where I am. We live about five minutes from the worst intersection (actually it is really two intersections that are 20 yards apart) I have ever encountered. It's tough to describe so let me just give you the pieces: two blinking red lights, two yellow blinking lights, railroad tracks, a curbless parking lot that is inches from the intersection, and cars upon cars. Some of the cars stop, some yield, and some simply go and they do all three in every direction! The unfortunate thing about this intersection is that I usually need to make a left hand turn, thus the anxiety. To avoid the hassel during peak times, we take an alternate route. This post is already too long and I haven't even touched on rotaries or the lack of roads that go north to south or east to west. Oh, how we miss Michigan and Nebraska roads! As you can imagine, we are very excited for winter driving up in these parts. I think I'm going to trade in for a team of dogs. Mush!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lucas do you think dad should drive out there? Maybe we should fly. How's the job hunting going Kim? Love you both and miss you. I love Up-North driving; except for the farmers who put their left blinker on and turn right. God Bless!!

Anonymous said...

LOL :) That sounds insane. I'm glad I don't have to deal with intersections quite that bad.

Calah

Anonymous said...

And I thought having two pipe trailers on either side of the road while a minivan, tractor, 2 4-wheelers, and a pick-up drive by was a traffic jam...ha...goes to show what country life is like:) Glad you're enjoying your new home; I hope everything is going well!

Hack said...

hey lady, watch what you say about farmers. if you love me you will leave comments on my blog too. ;)

lucas and ha(i)remites: clue # 2

today i spent $900 at costco.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Pat and I could survive out there driving. Pat reaches the Ohio border when were going to Maryland and sees a driver with a Maryland license plate and says their going to Maryland same as us. He then proceeds to follow them. We get lost alot. Duh They aren't all going to where were going.
Drive safe, Hi Kim Love you

Anonymous said...

now you know where I learned my heart attack inducing skillz, baby.

Trust Jesus!

Anonymous said...

Ooh, the roads in Boston are terrible too. Our mailman said something about you know how you can tell when people are tourists? And before he could even finish I said because they're looking around expecting to find a street sign? As if the dearth of street signs weren't bad enough, when there are street signs they're the same six names, washington, tremont, boylston, beacon, mass ave, comm ave . . . . unless of course they're one of those poor streets that cross Washington and then their name changes as soon as they cross spring to summer, water to milk etc. There was a survey several years ago in the Boston Globe asking who was worse drivers or pedestrians. The results were 50-50 and I completely concurr, when I am a driver I cannot believe the audacity of pedestrians and when I am a pedestrian I cannot believe how reckless and inconsiderate drivers are. . . .

Anonymous said...

I can't believe your mother doesn't think I can drive out there. Well, maybe she is right (not enough practice). But I will give it my best in August. We have to go thru Shelton, CT...This is where we are going to retire. It came to me in a dream. Your mother thinks I am losing it. But you never know....Luke do you do any parallel parking? Your stories you tell on here are fantastic. As soon as I get my data cable, I will be able to go on here more and read about the adventures of the Millers. Miss ya and love ya both.
Sailorman

Anonymous said...

Hello.I'm a tony's student.He told me about this blog when we were talking about Boston.