Driving in Massachusetts
It's stupid.
Tonight I went out to dinner with Renee. (Or, I took her out to dinner...don't ask me if it was a "date," because I'm not entirely sure myself.) The place we went to was Not Your Average Joe's, a neo-American (?) restaurant which my aunt had taken me to last year on an outing. It's in Randolph, which is about a half hour drive from Wheaton if you take the expressway.
This was only the second time I'd driven on Massachusetts highways...the first time was Monday. Monday's drive down was surprisingly smooth; I had anticipated driving here to be much worse. Well, tonight was the night I put my guard back up. No one drives a constant speed; people pass on the right; at least three cars swerved across three lanes of traffic to get in front of me with feet of clearance to take the next exit. Everyone drives either 20 mph faster/slower than I drive, which makes use of cruise control null in void. But it's not just the people that suck, it's the roads themselves as well. The on-ramps put a curve right at the end, so after you accelerate you must then decelerate, making it near impossible to get back up to speed in time. And the off-ramps only go for about 500 feet before making an equally sharp curve. Shards of tires lay in the middle of the lanes, as do very wide (but thankfully shallow) potholes. Whoever designed the highways probably did so a-la Big Dig: shoddy work with likely a lot of the expenses going to graft. Massachusetts highways. Aaugh.
But the good news is, I'm not turning into a Masshole. I'm from Maine, and I'm determined to be an ambassador to good driving...Goddammit.
Tonight I went out to dinner with Renee. (Or, I took her out to dinner...don't ask me if it was a "date," because I'm not entirely sure myself.) The place we went to was Not Your Average Joe's, a neo-American (?) restaurant which my aunt had taken me to last year on an outing. It's in Randolph, which is about a half hour drive from Wheaton if you take the expressway.
This was only the second time I'd driven on Massachusetts highways...the first time was Monday. Monday's drive down was surprisingly smooth; I had anticipated driving here to be much worse. Well, tonight was the night I put my guard back up. No one drives a constant speed; people pass on the right; at least three cars swerved across three lanes of traffic to get in front of me with feet of clearance to take the next exit. Everyone drives either 20 mph faster/slower than I drive, which makes use of cruise control null in void. But it's not just the people that suck, it's the roads themselves as well. The on-ramps put a curve right at the end, so after you accelerate you must then decelerate, making it near impossible to get back up to speed in time. And the off-ramps only go for about 500 feet before making an equally sharp curve. Shards of tires lay in the middle of the lanes, as do very wide (but thankfully shallow) potholes. Whoever designed the highways probably did so a-la Big Dig: shoddy work with likely a lot of the expenses going to graft. Massachusetts highways. Aaugh.
But the good news is, I'm not turning into a Masshole. I'm from Maine, and I'm determined to be an ambassador to good driving...Goddammit.