Highway Stories via Camera Phone

After he left the rest of us spent a couple of minutes worrying about the effect a huge tie up on 90 West would have on 90 East, but from the sound of things it didn’t look like it would be any worse than normal. 

That was when I saw I had a text message from Jen.  She’d been rear ended!  She’s okay, and it sounds like the car is too.  Thankfully.

So off I go on my commute home.  90 East is okay, but the reports on 90 West were sadly very accurate.  Gridlock.  “Whew!” says me to myself.  “Glad I got to avoid the car fire!”

Shortly after that I pulled onto route 95 North (that’s 128 to us Massholes).  I drove about two miles and the traffic stopped.  I look ahead and see a tower of billowing smoke rising into the air.

Seems Eastern Massachusetts had two rush hour car fires today.

This one was in the Southbound lane and I was heading North, but there was a major rubber necking traffic jam.  I of course never rubber neck, but if those around me are going to insist on doing it I will use my trusty (crappy) camera phone to document the situation.

Can you see it?  Can you see the car fire?

No?  Let’s try again…

Can you see it now?  Sure you can!  I actually took two pictures, but the second one caught nothing but solar glare.

All this camera phone action led me to dump all of the traffic pictures I’ve taken but haven’t used.  There was a picture from the morning commute today too.  A van was pulled over by a state cop.  The driver of the van was unloading it’s contents onto the side of the road under the super vision of one of Mass Highway’s finest.  At first I thought it was a bust, but it was probably just a break down and the driver was going to move the contents to another van.

It seemed like it might be interesting, but it was probably just a mundane event.

Unlike Thursday night last week.  I had a date with Jen in Methuen.  I left Framingham at 5:35ish.  I got onto the Pike and hit major traffic.  I got onto 128 and hit more major traffic.  I usually get off 128 at route 3 North, but when I go to Methuen I stay on for another few miles (five or six maybe?  Maybe a little more?) to route 93 North. 

About half way between 3 and 93 I was stopped in the left lane when not one but two cops came flying up behind me.  One was a state cop, the other was a town cop.  If you squint at this picture the cars in the left lane might almost register as cops.  (yeah, I moved over one lane to let them pass.)

While it may be tough to make out the two cars as emergency vehicles, it won’t be tough to do when I show you the picture from their destination.

The cluster of people in front of the Fire Engine were strapping some one onto a stretcher.  I hope the guy’s okay. 

Well that’s it for this installment of “Scenes from the Massachusetts Highways.”  It’s turned out to be a kinda crummy night.  I have a splitting headache and the San Jose Sharks are losing 2-0 in the first intermission.  If they lose the game they lose the series.  The played well for most of the first period, but it’s looking kinda bleak right now.

One final note, I found out today that a former classmate of mine from the UMass Lowell Computer Science Department passed away last month.  If you could send along some happy thoughts to the memory of George Pantazopoulos I would appreciate it. 

Good Day