A Cape Cod Birthday Celebration

Posted on July 26, 2017July 25, 2017 by Dusty Roads

A Cape Cod Birthday Celebration

What more could you ask for than spending summer time on Cape Cod. Throw in a birthday to celebrate and you have the ingredients for a perfect day. The question is, can you get there?

First there is the drive

The only way on or off the “Cape” is over one of 2 bridges, the Sagamore and the Bourne. Which one you take depends on where you want to go on the Cape. The Birthday Girl wanted a”lobsta roll” by the sea. The Phantom Gourmet suggested Captain Kidd Restaurant in Woods Hole. The Cape Cod Birthday Adventure began at 10:30 am in Brockton, MA. About 3 miles from the Bourne Bridge traffic came to a complete stop. It didn’t matter that we were on a highway with a speed limit of 65 mph. Summer Cape traffic had brought our little excursion to a halt.

Cross Over The Bridge

We had reservations at the restaurant for 1 pm. By 12:00 we had the bridge in sight but we were still just inching along. Finally we squeezed into the 2 lanes of traffic to climb the bridge over the Cape Cod Canal. The views from the bridge are amazing, marred only by the suicide barrier installed to keep the depressed and hopeless alive until they can get help. What a depressing thought!

Captain Kidd Restaurant

Once over the bridge the traffic began to move and in less that 30 minutes we were entering the little town of Woods Hole. We spotted the restaurant as we waited for a draw bridge to close after letting several small pleasure boats pass from the inner harbor out to the open ocean.

With luck we found parking about a block from the restaurant. In spite of the reservation there was no room on the outdoor deck. The compromise was a table right in front of a large picture window looking out over the inner harbor.

Lobster Rolls were the lunch of the day as the birthday girl, her son and daughter all indulged in the seasonal delicacy.

I had to be different with a plate of fried sea scallops fresh from the boat. Trust me, you can’t mistake frozen for fresh. The difference is huge.

We were all stuffed after that lunch so a break at the Aquarium before we looked for desert seemed like a great plan.

What Can Possibly Go Wrong~

Posted on June 2, 2017June 2, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 8 Comments

Whatever can go wrong probably will!

I had a chance to work from home today because I have enrolled in a class to learn more about WordPress. Oh there’s lots of places to read about it but I felt I needed a instructor to explain it and answer my questions. Working from home would let me go directly into Boston. What could possibly go wrong?

I raced out of the house at 5 pm. My work phone was still blowing up with emails and I got a call as I dashed out the door. It’s also rush hour but the class doesn’t start until 6:30 so I felt like I had plenty of time. As I pulled onto the expressway I pressed OnStar and gave them the address. I didn’t want to take any chance of getting lost. I also wanted to know my eta.

Where’s the RUSH in Rush Hour?

Bad News. It was 11 miles and 54 minutes. WHAT?! 54 minutes to go 11 miles? That’s really bad. Turns out they were right. Shortly after I activated OnStar traffic came to a screeching halt. We crawled. I could have walked faster!

Then as if I wasn’t late enough, OnStar took me to the wrong address. I thought they were just routing me around the traffic. Nope. I have no idea where I ended up but it wasn’t where I wanted to be. After another call to OnStar and new directions I finally arrived at my destination at 7:30 pm. I’d missed half of the class.

No Need to be Rude, Dude.

I earned a really dirty look from the instructor who refused to accept my apology. His response was “Don’t expect me to hold up the class for you”. Of course I was left without any direction to catch up. I was on my own. I finally gave up and logged into my new blog so I could follow along without messing up this space.

I picked up some tips but the most exciting thing is that I learned how to add Videos.
This is my first attempt!

I love this video of Buddy. It always makes me laugh and now I can share it! Yay!

I’m Alive!

Posted on February 13, 2017February 13, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

Well as you can see from the title I not only survived the nose to nose standoff, I managed to come back down the mountain side and get back to the safe driving.

The first car would not give an inch. I climbed a boulder to get as far off the road as I could. Finally the car I was facing gunned the engine and shot past me. My car immediately slid of the rock and settled back onto the road but there was still one more car that had refused to back up.

dsc_4308a

With much arm waving and shouting the spectators finally got him off to the side of the road so I could just squeak past. I didn’t dare look at the drop off to my left or I’m sure I would have fainted dead away.

Having passed that obstacle I finished my drive to the top where I found a food truck with a small parking area. There were lots of cars parked and everyone was milling around. I pulled in too. It seemed as good a place as any to bring my heart rate back down to something close to normal.

dsc_4311a

I made up my mind that I was not leaving that parking area unless it was to go back the way I came. I’d had quite enough of the Road to Hana. I didn’t care that I hadn’t found the park I was looking for. Another time maybe.

It was almost 30 minutes before we saw cars beginning to climb the road on the opposite hill. Everyone ran for their cars including me. I tacked onto the end of the little caravan. But about 100 yards down we came to a stop. Finally a man came back to tell us all to back up. As the last in line I was the first to start to back up.

dsc_4312a

Still shaken from the first experience I wasn’t doing too good a job so our traffic director hopped in and had me back in the parking area in short order. It was obvious that he had a lot of experience backing up. Another 20-30 minute wait and we all started down again. This time he had the upcoming cars pulled over and our line of about 15 cars all managed to pass without incident. I was the last one and I watched the cars head on up the road once I had passed by.

The Road to Hana is beautiful but as I learned the hard way, also dangerous and treacherous. I don’t want to do a repeat of this anytime soon!

The Insurance Jungle

Posted on January 25, 2014January 25, 2014 by Dusty Roads

About a week ago we had the 2013 wrap up meeting in Somerville at the main Boston Office. What that means is I get to drive 51 miles each way to hear how we did and hope for some insights on what’s to come in 2014. Being a work from home employee, my attendance is optional but I am a nosy employee. I want to hear from the horses mouth what’s projected for the coming year. I don’t want to hear all the speculation and innuendo when the meeting results gets rehashed over the email water cooler.

So as a dutiful, nosey employee I made my way (1.5 hours) to the Somerville office via the central artery, the expressway, the “distressway” , Route 93, or any and all of the above, They are all names for the same stretch of highway H_ _ L.

Following the meeting and a nice lunch (I really go for the free food)

I headed back to repeat the process. It was about 2:15-2:30 when I left. That’s slightly ahead of rush hour. (in theory) . Traffic wasn’t too bad as I entered the tunnel to the southern side of the artery but it was filling in fast. I’d almost made it to what they call the Braintree Split when it happened.

I have no idea what actually triggered the accident.

There was a large truck to my right with a brown SUV behind it. I was in the next lane, a travel lane with cars in front and in back and the next lane to my left was also filled with cars.

Traffic was moving probably 30-40 miles per hour. A good clip for the volume. A lot of jockeying goes on here as the right hand lanes try to get to the left side for RT 3 and those on the left try to cross to the right for Rt. 128.

Suddenly I heard things flying and then something shook my car. I didn’t know if I had damage or not but plastic stuff was still flying around so I pulled over. The Brown SUV had hit the left rear of the box truck and the force of that hit bounced him into my car. His SUV was a mess. The truck had only slight damage. My car has a superficial scrape and the passenger mirror was knocked off. It will still cost a bundle to be repainted.

I called 911 and the state police responded right away.

My car was drivable so after an exchange of insurance cards I was on my way, “collateral damage” to the main even between the SUV and the truck. Thus entering the INSURANCE JUNGLE.

My first call was to my insurance carrier to put them on notice. My intention was to go through the SUV’s carrier. First I got a call from the “adjuster” from my company. Then I got a call from the “Liability Adjuster” from my insurance carrier. He took a statement and told me they would pay the whole claim and to go ahead and get the ball rolling with the body shop.

The body shop said “Whoa, not so fast. They won’t pay the deductible.” I said yes, the adjuster said they would because it wasn’t my fault. Then I got another call from someone else …again from my company…who confirmed that they would pay the deductible and “subrogate” from the other carrier.

Today I took my car for an estimate. The body shop will send the estimate in to the company and then we’ll wait for approval to go forward. I still haven’t heard from the other insurance company. In the meantime, duct tape fixes anything. 🙂

Stats

Posted on December 2, 2013December 2, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Yesterday started a new month and as I usually do, I reviewed my stats for the month and check to see how I was doing compared to last year. My goal is to improve the traffic to my blog so as long as my numbers beat the previous year I figure I’m going in the right direction.
One of my favorite stats to check is where my readers have come from. WordPress has not only a list, but a map and I think this is so cool.
This is what the map looks like since I’ve been blogging on WordPress.

Country	Views
United States	47,422
Canada	1,065
United Kingdom	451
Germany	285
France	281
Russian Federation	259
India	209
Australia	179
Italy	134
Netherlands	121
Taiwan	120
Brazil	104
Indonesia	75
Philippines	68
Croatia	68
Greece	67
Finland	65
Republic of Korea	65
Slovakia	65
Spain	64
Mexico	63
Malaysia	62
Bulgaria	59
Argentina	58
Poland	54
Thailand	53
Portugal	51
Sweden	51
Czech Republic	51
Turkey	50
Japan	48
Belgium	46
Switzerland	46
Romania	45
Denmark	40
Pakistan	36
South Africa	35
New Zealand	34
Ireland	34
Israel	32
Hong Kong	32
Hungary	32
Ukraine	31
Singapore	28
Colombia	27
Ecuador	25
Serbia	24
Puerto Rico	24
Chile	23
Trinidad and Tobago	19
Norway	17
United Arab Emirates	16
Lithuania	16
Saudi Arabia	14
Viet Nam	13
Nigeria	13
Austria	13
Egypt	11
Dominican Republic	11
Peru	10
Moldova	10
Kuwait	10
Iceland	9
Qatar	8
Iraq	8
Malta	8
Bangladesh	8
Latvia	8
Costa Rica	7
Slovenia	7
Belarus	7
Venezuela	7
Guatemala	6
Algeria	6
Guam	6
Barbados	6
Georgia	6
Albania	5
Bosnia and Herzegovina	5
Kenya	5
Sri Lanka	4
Bolivia	4
Estonia	4
Jordan	3
Cyprus	3
Jamaica	3
Paraguay	3
Cambodia	3
Oman	2
Tunisia	2
Lebanon	2
Panama	2
Lao People’s Democratic Republic	2
Bahamas	2
Rwanda	1
Cuba	1
China	1
Palestinian Territory, Occupied	1
Guyana	1
Senegal	1
United Republic of Tanzania	1
Mauritania	1
Macao	1
Myanmar	1
Yemen	1
El Salvador	1
Faroe Islands	1
French Guiana	1
Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic	1
Turks and Caicos Islands	1
Luxembourg	1
Syrian Arab Republic	1
Antigua and Barbuda	1
Uruguay	1
Cayman Islands	1
Fiji	1
Uganda	1
Honduras