Greetings from Danvers, Massachusetts

I've parked my derriere in a Panera, in Danvers, MA, for a couple of hours. Maybe the smartest thing I've done the last fifteen hours!! Remember that little saying "When God was passing out brains, I thought He said 'trains' and I said I'd take a slow one" ?? What possessed me to leave the comfort of Barnes & Noble (in Hingham)--with free WiFi--at 4 o'clock--and start driving North en route to Maine?? Traffic wasn't bad South of Boston because the "going home" congestion was leaving the city.

NOT the way I planned (one month ago) to see Boston. I drove through it at rush hour and it was a "white knuckle" ride. (An "E" ticket ride in the really old days when Disneyland [and my first son] were infants.) ~~ Well, I got stuck in "outbound" traffic going North toward New Hampshire. "Duh!!"

Then my idiot friend, Carmen (my Garmin), decided I really needed to see the secondary highways and surface streets. I have no idea why she directed me off I-95 to I-93 and later on US-1. I couldn't write down all the highway numbers; I just did the best I could in traffic.

I wanted to escape the congestion and found a Super Stop & Shop Market (large parking lot). I fixed a salad and ate it in the shade of the trailer. I foolishly thought the traffic would have eased so continued. Nope!! Same bumper-to-bumper!! So I asked Carmen for a Wal-Mart. She directed me to one in Lynn (about three miles) but a Security Guard said "No overnight parking." He directed me to the Wal-Mart in Salem (about five miles).

The Salem Wal-Mart is a small store (by comparison), with a small parking lot, on a very busy street. Strangely, a Wal-Mart that isn't by an Interstate highway or mixed in with dozens of other name-brand stores (like Lowes, McDonald's, TGI Friday, etc.).

I was up at 5:35 this morning because the noise from the parking lot sweeper truck was deafening, and a delivery truck caused the T@B to vibrate as the truck zoomed past (within inches?). Time to get out of Salem!! ~~ It was 64 degrees and I had reached for a blanket during the night because I was cold. ~~ Left Wal-Mart at 6:30 but searched GPS for a nearby Panera before I departed. I did not want to compete with the morning crowd headed for work!!

More information than you wanted to know?!?!?!

Pictures: Top is Salem Wal-Mart; Below: proximity of a sign saying "Boston City Limits"; downtown??; a tunnel; a bridge; Super Stop & Shop Market; everything in a heap on the T@B floor from rough surface streets.