Last weekend wasn’t really meant to be a getaway, just an excuse to get my ride to a service center that wouldn’t rip me off, then take a short trip to Lake George in the Adirondacks for the weekend rather than jet 200 miles back home.
One thing I’ve learned from this trip: don’t go to any tourist trap when it’s in-season. Seriously. I can’t tell you how many times I could have driven on an otherwise open road, only to get stuck behind some old fogey from South Carolina driving 10 miles because the town was unfamiliar to him. The traffic at times just felt Manhattan-ish, and that was NOT a feeling I wanted to have this far away from home.
I’ve also noticed people were not friendly, which surprised me, but then I started to form a working theory as to why this was. I call it the Suburbia Suckage theory. :-D
I have noticed that when I’m in the big city, people are generally friendly and approachable. Even Manhattan is like this. When I’m out in the country in small towns and other rural areas, people are happy enough just to see a different face.
If I’m in suburbia however, people are walking piles of fossilized compost heap. Because Lake George is an over-commercialized town, it more closely resembles a suburbia atmosphere than a town like Lake Placid would. Suburban areas often result from a surplus population that brings all the problems you would come to expect from a massively populated area, yet with none of the benefits. You get a town ill-equipped to handle a sea of humanity sweeping over the town (despite it being a tourist trap), and the net result is a populace that ends up being just a bit more snippier than usual.
Even I was feeling it as I pulled into the hotel parking lot. After stopping the car, I noticed a couple walking in front of me, arm in arm, and of course playing suck face just in time for me to get a nice view. Hmmmmmm…
*HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK*
I leaned on the horn just as they passed by, startling the complete crap out of them, then quickly leaned to my passenger side pretending I was looking for something. Oopsie, I must have accidentally hit the horn while I was looking on the floor for my, um, keys. My bad. :-D
Yep, I think I’m better off traveling around in the off-season. The less of humanity I have to deal with, the better. But don’t you dare call me anti-social! ;)
“I have noticed that when I’m in the big city, people are generally friendly and approachable.”
Even in Harlem?
They’re renovating Harlem. It’s a funsie town now. :-D
I’d stay away from Brooklyn though…