We stayed in the Danvers/Salem area all day Monday and Tuesday. Our first stop was Salem State College, where we took a guided tour of the campus. There were a dozen or so other students plus their parents. There were plenty of other people my age on the tour, but none of them was a prospective student. I was the only one interested in graduate school, also. The rest were high school students looking for a likely college, or first year college students looking to transfer. A perky little sophomore led us around and told us about college life. Yeah, it didn't apply to me. There was very little useful information for us on that tour, though we did discover where most of the classroom buildings are. For the information I need, I will email the program director of the graduate counseling psychology program and snoop around on the website. Eh. Did I need to come all the way to Salem, Massachusetts for this?
Yes, I did. Because the primary reason we are here is to get a feel for the area, the college being just a part of the greater whole. After our college tour we wandered into downtown Salem, Essex Street to be precise. It's at the heart of the tourist area. C was interested in the pagan shops, of which there are many. Salem is (in)famous for the witch trials of the late 17th century. I learned a bit of that history. It's pretty scary, not because of the alleged witches, but because of the people (mostly young girls) who were accusing people of being witches. The witch scare only lasted about nine months before the general wave of opinion moved on to some other superstitions or scandals or whatever. Nineteen people were killed for being witches before the ordeal was over. Many more were imprisoned, but they were released after the panic ended.
The thing about Salem, though, is that it's a coastal town, a harbor port, with rich nautical history that spans centuries. But what comes to mind for most people when they hear of Salem, Massachusetts? Witches. I learned that Salem was important in the whaling industry back in those days. There was also lots of overseas trade, the East India Company being active in the area. It's the witch thing that brings in the tourists and their dollars. Whatever.
The town is adorable. I'm especially interested in the architecture, no surprise there. The houses are cute, quaint, lovely, and many other pleasant adjectives. There are shops and stuff all over downtown. It's a town that's easy to walk in. One part of Essex Street is closed off to automobiles and is a pedestrian mall. There are historic places of interest all over the area. We saw the Peabody Essex Museum, but didn't go in. It was closed Monday, and we didn't take the time for it on Tuesday. Maybe another time.
The roads around here are very confusing. There isn't a unified grid of streets anywhere in this area, and one long stretch of road might have six or more different names along its length. Mass. Hwy 114 runs from Danvers through Salem, but takes a bunch of turns getting from one burg to the other. It's one of the big retail areas in Danvers. Wal-Mart is on Hwy 114. Through Danvers it's called Andover Street. The voice of the GPS thing C downloaded onto my BlackBerry sounds like she's saying "Bendover Street." So of course I'm calling it Bendover Street :) The city/state/whomever is working on Bendover Street through Danvers, and currently has the top couple of layers of asphalt chewed off. This leaves the manhole risers (get your mind out of the gutter!) raised above the level of the road, causing driving to be treacherous. C says it reminds him of a video game, having to avoid the obstacles while moving down the road. Since he said that, I've been using the road that way. Makes it fun to drive on Bendover Street and play the real life version of a video game! This is the greater Boston area, so of course people around here are used to other cars weaving in and out of lanes of traffic. I tell ya', I'm having a blast driving around here!
On the other hand, I'm getting frustratingly befuddled. It's one thing to go on a little adventure in search of my destination. It's another thing to have no fucking idea where I am or where I have been or where my destination is from there. Trying to find a restaurant the other night I got SO annoyed. Poor C has been annoyed for days. So on Sunday (I think it was) he downloaded the Verizon Navigator program. She has been most helpful, both for me and for C. He's much less stressed than he was. I have named the voice of direction (C would say "the voice of reason") Cartesia, in honor of the Cartesian Coordinate system developed by Rene Descartes. Superman things this is appropriate. Cartesia and I are trying to build a good working relationship. I'm a stubborn old bird, so admitting that I need navigational assistance is a hard step for me.
Speaking of steps, we have been walking a lot! Starting on Sunday in Boston with RG, and continuing for the past two days, I've been on my feet an awful lot. I'm a bit sore at the end of the day, but I haven't been achy any more than usual when I get up in the morning. This afternoon C and I went to the indoor pool here at the hotel (swanky, huh?) and I floated for an hour or so. He swam. I was relaxed.
I'm down to three bandanas and a handkerchief for clean clothes. Had to dig in the dirty clothes pile to find a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to wear to supper tonight. The hotel has a small laundry area with coin operated machines. Quaint, huh? At least it's in the hotel, not at some questionable location down some dark alley. Our clothes are in the dryer, probably ready to be removed. I'm off to do that momentarily.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) we leave Massachusetts. We'll drive up through New Hampshire and Vermont, just to see the pretty, then head down through New York into Pennsylvania again. We'll stay overnight in southern Pennsylvania (NOT in Schenectady!) I plan to push on all the way home to South Carolina on Thursday. That's two days of very heavy driving ahead of us, and I'm not sure how much blogging I'll do until after I get home and rest up a bit. So TTFN, and don't do anything I wouldn't do. Or something like it.
