Displacing Dirt, Asphalt And Concrete

A number of us are attending a huge benefit run this Saturday.  It's an annual event (this will be the 3rd year) and raises money for wounded veterans.  I haven't heard of this run before this year, having been first made aware of it when we attended the bike show back in March.  There was a Marine handing out flyers for it, so I chatted with him a bit, shook his hand, and said I'd definitley be there.

After looking into this a bit more, it seems I will be nothing more than an inconsequential particle in this monstrosity of a run.  Ok, 'inconsequential' is incorrect, as any money raised will be good.  But the attendance level for this run is unmatched; they had over 2,000 bikes last year, and they are expected to exceed that number this year.  Saturday's weather looks to be quite good (in light of what we've been dealing with lately), so that will only help to bolster the ranks.  The cluster-F potential for a run of this magnitude is enormous.  Hence my inability to ignore the pull that such an event exudes.

So what does any of this have to do with things being displaced?  Well you see, the rally point for this run is at the Boston dealership where I bought my '02 Fatboy.  Having made quite a number of trips to that dealership back in the day, I assumed I'd be able to easily find my way there, so I was planning on assuming Road Captain duties for our Post's contingent this Saturday.  But, just to be safe, I did some mapping on-line to make sure I still had the route down in my head.

And it's a good thing I did.  The exit I used to take off of 93 isn't there any longer.  How does a full-blown exit...something enormous, and extending downward from the elevated expressway to interconnect with the grade-level streets, just vanish?  This thing was a monstrous, multi-lane exit ramp...tons and tons of dirt, alphalt and concrete...something like that doesn't just get up and walk away...

Ahh, but then it came back to me.  Boston's "Big Dig" was going on back then, and you never knew which way you would be diverted, as the street layouts changed from week to week.  Sometimes a road was there, sometimes it wasn't.  But to think that something as massive as this three-story exit ramp had been discarded...wow.

But, no time to dwell on the past.  I've laid out a new route and, schedule allowing, I'll brave the unforgiving Friday evening Boston traffic and do a dry run to scout things out.  With any luck, I'll make it back by morning - just in time to turn around and head back in with the crew.

Ride Hard, Remember The Seven P's.