Some Streets are Made for Cars Only (lame)

We approached Route 2 from the south, on Page Road, a gorgeous, well-maintained residential street sprinkled with family farms and McMansions.  It was a comfortable and peaceful ride, and things were looking up. That is, until we got to Route 2. There was no passage – Jersey barriers lined the median for as far as we could see.

We rode along Rt 2 where the shoulder was still fairly wide, but this only lasted a quarter mile or so. As the shoulder began to thin, we also realized that we were on our way to the I-95 on-ramp. Spacewalk-time! We hauled our ships over the guardrail on the south side of Rt 2, and made our return west. To our right: high-speed on-coming traffic. To our left: tall grass, taller trees, some parts of the Cambridge Reservoir.  Below us: rough surface of dirt, grass, garbage, plus a stretch of loose gravel as we cross the Cambridge Reservoir (see exit marker 52A on this map. Pushing ships over this gravely path was pretty intense).  Ahead:  no plans of best way to get home.

We backtracked to where Old Colony Rd met Rt 2. At the time we had no idea where that road would take us, and we no longer trusted our devices.  The Day Star had basically retired, and transports were coming at us, many without headlights (it was that time of evening when most drivers had started their journey while it was still light out).

H4ckw0r+h pointed out that there was a break in the Jersey barriers lining the median. We weighed our options: Head back down Old Colony Rd to unknown territory? Or try to cross Rt 2 to get to Lexington Rd, via which I knew we could get to Lexington? We agreed that the best thing to do now was to get us off the skinny shoulder, and we could see that the other side of Rt 2 offered more space buffer. So we counted off, and ran.

Crossing multiple lanes of high speed traffic really got adrenaline pumping. It also had us missing Acehole and all his orange. The crossing was a complete success, and we continued on Rt 2 west until we found Lexington Rd. Spirits were high; I even mused (maybe too loudly) “Man, I wouldn’t want to be THESE people,” at those homes right along Rt 2 (check out those unmarked cul-de-sacs, near Lexington Rd – how annoying that must be to get to/from home!).  The rest of the ride was smooth-sailing and uneventful: we didn’t miss a single turn and found the Minuteman as expected. And — thanks to the time change back from Day-Light-Savings-Time — we got back home with plenty of time to spare before the work week begins. We even squeezed in some Sapporo Ramen with Threespeed.

Neither the map nor the GPS device could have anticipated the asinine situation that we found ourselves in.  Luckily, Cloudbuster wasn’t with us, and we got out of this fix without no real damage (my pride’s a little hurt from failing my navigational groove, but hey) .

It’s like a friend of mine said: The shortest distance between two points in the Greater Boston area is the way that you know. Consider this lesson learned.

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