Category: Travel

Lessons within Lessons

You would think I would know this by now, but sadly not yet.  I learned that even if my car gets 39 miles to the gallon, I still need to put those gallons in, and to do it way before I head into the Big City to meet a bus on a busy weekend evening.

After an adrenaline-filled workday, I was calmly on time to drive into Boston when the gas light came on.

Here’s another lesson: Never try to use the GPS (which wanted to tell me that newsstands in downtown Boston sold fuel – like what?  lighter fluid?) and Yelp on the iPhone while driving alone!  As I watched the “range”/miles remaining indicator head for single digits, I took a wrong turn onto the Mass Pike and had to drive in the wrong direction before doing that Boston-U-turn exit to come back and find the gas in Charlestown.  All with a deadline.  And traffic.

Very very stressful.

My very wise sister pointed out that the bigger lesson was to learn to skip the adrenaline even while doing the rest of the adventure.  And if I’m going to that, I might as well skip the daytime dose as well.

Pull Over! Right now!

Today, I learned, from the Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, the top 10 reasons to pull over immediately:

12. Losing Something ‘Essential’

11. Cabin Chaos

10. Medical Emergency

9. Lack of Visibility

8. Any Loud or Sudden Noise

7. Temperature Light or Oil Light

6. Sudden Change in Handling

5. Steam/Water Vapor

4. Smell

3. Smoke

2. Flames

1. Blue Lights

The details are here: Top 10 Signs You Should Pull Over

Do any of these surprise you?  One of them is news to me.

Marathon Monday T Travels

I learned that it is a brave and possibly foolish thing to try to ride the T inbound from Kenmore at the end of the work (for some) day on Marathon Monday.  This is also always a Red Sox day game day, as in the Fenway-area bars have lines at 8:30 AM.   Those are just some of the many happy and extra people getting on the train.

On this day, the packed-to-the-gills trains poked along, a few feet at a time, overheating all the while.  Or at least the people inside were overheating.  I was scaring Barbara by removing layers but we got to Boylston before it became scandalous.

Just be inspired by those who ran 26.2 hilly miles, and walk!

Avoiding Meeting Madness

So many lessons from one event, and the first one learned by me about a thousand times so far,, and counting.

1. VERIFY the meeting time!  Otherwise, a leisurely trip may turn into a big crisis, needlessly!  It’s as easy as counting on the calendar, rather than my memory.  Just do it!

2. Comm Ave at Kenmore Square is a great place to catch a cab

3. A cab ride is that saves the day is worth its weight in gold.  Well…maybe not quite that much. But possibly the more than the number on the meter, and I can split the difference.  Well… maybe not split it in half, but I can certainly afford to show my appreciation for having my day saved.

4. It feels really good, when going to a new place to meet with new people, to arrive early.

Seasoned Travelers or What?

I have no idea how many times I am going to have to learn to prepare and pack for a trip earlier than I’ve been doing.

We travel enough to know what we need (yes we have printed checklists and yes they work really well so never mind making fun of that) for a trip.  It’s the little stuff that does not have to wait for the day of or the day before the trip.  For me it was finding a quart-size ziplock bag, or transferring something out of one in use elsewhere so I could use it for the carryon liquids.  And restocking business cards.  And printing stuff to bring.  And recording a colleague’s cell phone number. And a whole bunch of other stupid stuff.  For Steve it was replacing his shoelaces.  Really?  We can’t think of this and do it ahead of time?

It’s important that we leave on time, so that we have time to go back to check to see if we actually locked the door. (Answer is yes.  Every time.)  I am not even trying to learn to change that!

 

BOOK EARLY already!

WHAT is so hard to learn about this lesson?  Why am I still learning it?  Or not learning it??  Book flights early!  As soon as you know your dates.   Just do it!

I lost out on using a free flight just by snoozing and waiting.  I ended up paying for it, and paying twice what it would have cost a week ago, at that!

Book early!!!!!

Taxi Lesson 2: No Faster

I should know this by now.  I’ve learned it before.  More than once.   In the last year, alone.

This lesson: To get across the middle of Boston is not necessarily faster by taxi than by walking and the T.

It takes me 45 minutes to get from Fenway to South Station, including walking through Chinatown.  If I need to do it without the walk, then it’s two trains and I need to allow a little longer.  It takes me at least that long from Longwood, as well.

So, one might think that a taxi for this distance, would be shorter, right?  I mean, it is about 3 miles, after all.

Nope.  In rush hour, you can fly through some parts, or not, but the area around South Station is bound to be gridlock.   And it’s the kind of gridlock that leaves you watching the traffic lights and your watch and your odds of making the bus all change before your eyes, without moving at all.

Which brings me to TWO extra bonus lessons for the day:

1. When you are sitting in a taxi within site of your destination and you are not moving, GET OUT and start walking already!

2. Never make plans that matter what time you arrive, for after a Boston commute day.  This was one of the first lessons in this blog, but I guess I forgot it and need to learn it yet again.  And maybe again.