Getting Lost in Beantown
I can honestly say that throughout my trip, I’ve been to quite a number of urban environments, and as far as missed turns, Boston takes the cake. The cumulative missed turns from Denver, SLC, L.A., Miami, San Francisco, Portland, Miami, Vancouver, New Orleans, Memphis, Atlanta, Charleston, and D.C. still don’t combine to half the number of that of Boston.
I lack any real explanation for it either – it simply seemed a bit non-grid-like, and different on-ramps and outlets had not 2 options to proceed, but 3 or more, constantly. After a while I simply started crawling up to the next turn so I could look at the routed map and then decide which turn that most closely resembled. Regardless, this did not put a damper one bit to Boston.
Of course, like most stops, it had to kick off with a meet with local Audi fellows. Quite the clean group showed with what us auto-enthusiasts like to call “OEM+” modifications. Simply put, you modify your car with OEM, or aftermarket parts that compliment the car so well, it’s as if the car came from the factory as it stood. Here are the three fine examples to show:
The fourth party to show was Mikal. He, in fact, is the first enthusiast I’ve seen that arrived at a car meet via public transportation. Recently removed from his hometown in PA for an internship in Boston, he had some Audi withdrawal as well as a desire to also meet the local Audi folk.
After some general “shooting the shit”, we parted ways and I couldn’t let Mikal simply walk off to the nearest bus stop. I offered him a ride to the bus, but after some quick debating, I figured I’d drop him off at his apartment – hell, I had nothing planned for Boston the remainder of the day except to set up camp before it got too dark.
Mikal however, threw those plans out the window as he was generous enough to offer up some floor real estate in his apartment. Some lodging money saved, awesome. After a buffalo bomb sandwich, a few beers, and some TV, it was time to hit the sac. Cambridge and Fanueil Hall were up for tomorrow.
Mikal joined me for the day’s excursion and initial plans of biking there were quickly nulled when I realized an hour+ ride in a busy metropolitan area would be no way for me to remount on two wheels after 8 years – A4 it was.
I had visited Cambridge before and it was fairly uneventful. There were plenty of people out and about with the most exciting thing happening was some you-park-like-an-asshole content. We stood there laughing at the driver a mere 2 feet away and he remained aloof of the situation. Oh, I imagine some of Cambridge’s finest had a lazy day as well.
We headed towards Fanueil Hall, but only after some head-slapping moments. I had input Quincy Market as the destination, as it is an alternative moniker for the locale. Apparently, there was a town about 10 miles south of Boston named Quincy, and it contained a market – enough said. Finally Fanueil Hall seemed unique enough of a point of interest, and it was.
We reached there (after aforementioned missed turns) and came upon a street act, one of many to follow. They had a number of audience members lined up and a fellow was to jump them. After some witty comments and other banter later, the moment came. Here it is in sequence.
I was impressed, and it was onto the next act. Dressing and acting like statues was the name of the game, and hey, any ol’ gimmick’ll work it seems.
The final act was a circus/juggling act and it came to life when a small boy joined and was asked to simply stand there – a focus of interest apparently. He kept his cool with shiny objects whizzing by his head as well as showing some personality when cash came into play. The act themselves were alright and respect is due to their physical abilities.
To conclude, Boston was generally a fun town. Like most places I have visited, I haven’t stayed long enough in each to be fully justified on my take on the city as a whole. However, from what I’ve seen, there are a lot of quality people there and genuinely, would be a nice alternative to New York City (though I would miss NYC after a while, no matter where I was).
Fuel Efficiency stats:
- Miles Driven (up to last fill): 14,275.2
- Gallons Pumped: 533.553
- Miles per Gallon: 26.75