i went to new england college in henniker, nh. quite the interesting experience, let me tell ya. durring my time there, one road trip helped me develop my hatred for massachusets that comes out whenever we discuss the red sox
it's nothing against the state or it's people really... but anyways...
it was the week of thanksgiving, 2001. we had a home game the tuesday before thanksgiving (i was on the basketball team) which, of course, we lost... rather than stay tuesday night and leave wednesday morning, me, pete, a teammate of mine who i grew up with on long island, and edin, a kid from belgrade, yugoslavia, who was staying with his cousins in manhattan, left new hampshire at around 9:00pm, hoping to get home around 1:00, 2:00 at the very latest. we were making fantastic time... got down to just north of springfield in an hour, at which point, i noticed the stearing on my car was getting a little loose in the back... then the noise started... and i knew... we had a f&$@ing flat tire. got out, put the donut on, and pulled off Rt. 91 to a gas station in north springfield to try to fix the tire. put some fix a flat in it, filled it up with air... and their were all these air pockets, looked like little tumors, all over the tire. needless to say, i don't think it was a good idea to put the bubbly tire back on the car. so now here we were, by this point it was around 11:00 at night, no tire place was open, we were all poor college bums, so it's not like we could get a hotel room, and we had to get to new york, and then long island, and we were still in massachusets. and of course, on a donut, you really shouldn't spend too much time over 50 miles per hour, or the damn thing might fall off.
needless to say, we pulled into manhattan to drop off edin at around 4:30am. got out of the city and onto the LIE around 5ish, dropped pete off, and pulled infront of my house around 5:45... just as my dad was leaving for work. so a 4 hour drive turned into a near 9 hour marathon.
but oh... it gets better...
we have to be back for practice sunday at 10:00am. neither of us wanted to leave saturday night, 'cause we wanted to spend the extra time at home with our friends/family etc. so i got up at 4am, picked up pete, and headed off into manhattan to get edin. being sunday morning, traffic was non-existant. had edin in the car and headed into connecticut by 5. once again, we were making treeemendous time, which should have been the first warning sign. we didn't have to fly down the road 'cause there was hardly anyone on the road to begin with. so we enter massachusets, plenty of time to go. i put the car on cruise control, set at 5 miles over the speed limit. we pass through springfield, north springfield, and then enter the area around holyoke. we turn around a bend, and see a cop up in the distance parked on the shoulder. i turn the cruise control off, slow down 5 mph, and drive past the cop... as people are passing me in the speed lane... going exactly the speed limit. drive past the cop a good 10-15 feet... and he starts pulling onto the road. he's still following us... still following us... i start going even slower now... even slower... the lights come on. the mass state trooper pulls us over. asks for my liscense and registration... meanwhile, edin was sleeping in the backseat, which is filled with bags and stuff. he stars waking up, shuffeling all around... the trooper starts yelling at him.. "what are you doing?!?! do you have a gun?!?!?! show me your hands... SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!!!!," while statey has his hand on his holster. now remember, edin is here on a student visa from belgrade. he's thinking he's gonna get deported. the cop bolts to the otherside of the car, rips edin out and starts frisking him, then searching the backseat of the car. pete is cracking up in the front seat, and the cop starts yelling at him "PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE DASH!!" pete lets out an AHHH, drops his cell phone and puts his hands on the dashboard. i don't even wait, and just put my hands on the steeringwheel. cop finishes his search, let's edin get back in the car, and goes back to his patrol car. comes back with a ticket... 70 in a 65... radar isn't checked off, rather "estimated" is. and to make things even better, it was in a double point (which didn't matter 'cause i'm out of state)/double fine (which did matter 'cause i was a poor college schmo) zone. and oh yeah... i forgot to mention this one little fact. the date... november 25, 2001... my 21st birthday. we pulled back into henniker, nh, straight to the gym parking lot, and walked into the locker room to get ready for a 10:00 practice at exactly 9:55. and oh what a fun practice it was...
so there is the root over my disgust over the state of massachusets...