Well I was in Rochester today and it continues to be very odd for me to be there. I was born and raised in the Rochester area, but moved away right after high school. My new job, which I love incidentally, takes me there twice a week. I'm a bi-city commuter now. I never really did learn my way around Rot & Fester, thanks Jeffrey for that name, when I lived there since I was only 17. I can get anywhere in Buffalo and I even know Toronto better than I know Rot & Fester. The good part is that it's exploration time again.
I just love exploration time, with any new place, even if it's just a neighborhood I don't normally frequent. I just randomly take a road to see where it goes and eventually I figure it out and then I know a whole array of alternate routes. I stick with what I know at first, but then I get brave and venture down roads that I previously avoided. I like using my Onstar to get suggestions, but ultimately, I know best!
Rot & Fester is not an easy city to get around, unlike Buffalo. Buffalo was a planned city and is designed on the spoke system like Washington DC, thanks to Frederick Law Olmsted. There are beautiful tree-lined parkways and traffic circles abound. It's logical, Delaware Avenue stays Delaware Avenue from McKinley Square downtown all the way out to the canal in the City of Tonawanda. Rot & Fester is random and chaos rules. The streets frequently change names (and direction), first you're on State St, then it's Exchange St, then it's Lake Avenue, I wonder along the way why it went from 'streets' to an 'avenue.' I'm sure they don't know. Even Onstar is exasperated as it continually announces "Joseph Avenue becomes Seneca Avenue in 1 mile, one quarter of mile, you are on Seneca Avenue."
I'm always very proud of myself once I've mustered the courage to tackle an area and learn my way around, the rush never gets old. But I have to do it in my own time, I can't be rushed or late for anything. So now I'm finally figuring out those crazy Rot & Fester expressways, the 490, the dreaded Inner Loop, the 590, the 390, and even the Keeler expressway, aka 104. I've done them all and I'm a better man for having been there! I have roots in both cities, but it's very cool to get to know the Rot & Fester I know very little about without having to actually live there!
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