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Day 1,876 – Just Visitin’ this Coast

Brayton Pt cooling towers beyond playground sign

The cooling towers above are not part of a nuke station; no big “lurking terror” message today. Well, not the kind of lurking terror a nuke plant next door to a playground might inspire. If there’s lurking terror it’s more the “oh my god we’re selling our place and will be homeless in about 75 days” kind.

But the real question is what is it about the East coast that just makes me tired? It’s not like this is a different universe or anything. I mean, on balance, there’s the same shit here just like on that other coast. Sure, the speed limits, i’m referring to the actual speed limits, are higher. Yeah, there are more small mom ‘n pop-ish businesses here, but probably not more per capita. There are all the same big box stores. For sure there are more jewelry stores.

I suspect the answer is this place just gets trodden on more. There are so many people here. I mean, the elevator in the Ashland Springs Hotel has seen its share of use, but if you compare that elevator to any of the elevators in the Best Western Framingham, I’m going to posit there’s an order of magnitude increase in how many times these doors have opened and closed. The whole place just feels so… worn. Sometimes that’s comforting. Other times it’s like that parody of Myst showing what Myst Island looked like after millions of gamers passed through.

It’s nice to see all those wonderful old mills around Fall River, vacant for years, are now almost all occupied. Largely by fitness clubs it would seem, but hey, that’s better than empty.

Next report from Nashua or Manchester.