The Gawd-That-Seemed-Like-No-Sleep-At-All night's sleep did not translate into a peaceful, Let's-Relax-and-Recover morning for Scott. He needed to be out the door at 6:30 AM in order to fight rush hour traffic off the Cape, through Boston and back to camp by 11:00. I returned from my run by 5:50 and the boys were awake and buzzing with noise (GAH!) though they had contained themselves to our room, at least. Scott got in the shower and out the door on time. Our merry band was packed up and gonzo by 7:15. Excellent!
We trudged along pretty slowly on Route 3 toward Boston but Gabriel was (blessedly) taking a Varsity level nap and the boys and I were engrossed in The Spiderwick Chronicles on CD so life was good. Just south of Boston, my phone rang with Scott asking how our progress was going.
"Not horrible but we are stop and go on 93 just south of the JFK library."
"Okay, well, I'm at a service station. The van is on the lift. The brakes seemed to be failing and they were getting kind of smoky with all the stop and go through the city."
(The same brakes we had fixed LITERALLY a month ago, I might add).
He wasn't sure exactly how long a repair would take but I assured him we would catch up to him just in case it was not a one-day fix. I was somewhat anxious. Not because of the van - that sonofagun is always dying in some way - but because Boston drivers are notoriously aggressive and Boston roads are notoriously impossible to navigate for non-natives. So, I listened very carefully to where Scott said he was and how I should get there.
"I'm just beyond the airport. Take the Ted Williams Tunnel through the airport. I'm on Route 60 north at Joe's (not it's real name) Shop."
That sounded a little weird to me, but again, Boston is no grid so if that's how I needed to get there, I would do it.
Ted Williams Tunnel? Check.
Logan Airport? Check.
Route 60 North... Ummmm... where does one exit the airport onto Route 60? I saw Arrivals and Departures... I saw Terminals A - Whatever.... But when I got all the way around the airport loop, there was no sign for Route 60 North.
I had a stressed out conversation with Scott as I was traveling this bit.
"Honey, you said go through the airport. Was I supposed to LITERALLY go into Logan?"
"No! You just needed to follow signs to the airport and then take Route 1A to Route 60 North."
Grrrrr..... Route 1A had not come up in our previous conversations. In his defense, I have gone back and forth to Cape Cod dozens of times so I should have known this. In MY defense, I have never driven back and forth to Cape Cod using this route because the rotaries + the insane drivers + the useless signage scare the piss out of me. I generally stick to 93 South which has more traffic but it's impossible to get lost.
SO, I got back onto Route 93 south with the intention of getting OFF ASAP where I can turn around, head BACK through the Ted Williams and try again. Brilliant. No problem.
Except the first available exit, though easily found and easily navigated, was not far enough south. I was still north of the Ted Williams.
FRICK!
Back on the phone.
"Okay, I can't get back to the Ted Williams. I'm going over the Tobin Bridge and I'm going to take Route 1. Then I'm going to pull off and put the address of the shop into the Garmin and find you that way."
Except he didn't get a street name and when I put in "195 Route 60 North, Revere" nothing came up. Oh, and there was NO WHERE to pull off so I had to do this while driving down the road. Safety First is my middle name.
But I knew that somewhere along the line Route 1 and Route 1A meet up. And then Route 60 couldn't be far behind.
And suddenly, there it was. A rotary with, I swear, signs for Route 1, 1A, 16 AND 60... altogether. And it looked familiar.
I was of course in the COMPLETE wrong lane for getting on 60 north. I had to be a total Masshole and block traffic in order to get to where I needed to go. BUT, I did it.
Gabe, by the way, literally slept the ENTIRE time and once I explained for the 4th or 5th time to Tommy & Elliott that "Mom is a little stressed out right now about finding Dad so PLEASE stop asking me questions because I canNOT talk to your right now...." they were quiet and patient, too.
In the end, I got to the shop, we went to a mall for a couple of hours, had an early lunch, returned to the shop to get the car, paid an obnoxious amount for brakes that were JUST fixed, and we got home around 3:00.
We leave on Saturday for my sister's just outside Philly. So I ask you, "What could POSSIBLE go wrong!?"
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