And what a wonderful time in Harrisonburg it was!
February 24, 2007, 9:25 PM
I had a fun day today in Harrisonburg. First of all, my time with Patrick went quite well. I got to meet his father, and the three of us had dinner at Ruby Tuesday. He also got to see the Sable, and he was impressed. It helped that I ran it through the car wash earlier that day, too. I also got to see his Chevy Venture, which was pretty neat.
The three of us were also in agreement that the people who designed the traffic patterns for the Harrisonburg Crossing shopping center deserve to be shot, since there are only three points of entrance to that very large and very congested shopping center. There’s one on Burgess Road, which leads to East Market Street (US 33). Then there are two at the other end on Reservoir Street. And the parking rows have no breaks from one end to the other. Therefore, you have two ways across the shopping center, parallel to the buildings. Right up against Wal-Mart and Home Depot, or right up against the Barnes and Noble/Michaels/Ross/Staples/Circuit City/whatever building. Thus it’s very easy to get stuck in parking lot hell, as you have to go all the way to either end to change rows, and the two side areas are VERY congested with traffic. Two words: It sucks. They would be very well served to reconfigure the parking lot to add another way across that massive lot parallel to the buildings. Imagine another path parallel to the buildings down the center. That would start directly in front of the main entrance at Reservoir Street to right in between O’Charley’s and Ruby Tuesday. The construction work necessary to do this would involve building some new parking lot islands to mark the new ends of the rows, and paving through some long islands that run perpendicular to the buildings and run the full length of the lot. Until they do that, which I don’t see as being likely to happen any time soon, have one hand on the horn, and have the middle finger on the other hand at the ready, because Harrisonburg drivers drive like idiots, and that goes for permanent residents and JMU students alike. Every time I have to cross that shopping center when it’s busy, another hair turns gray.
Couple that with the fact that I try to avoid East Market Street at all costs between Cantrell Avenue and Evelyn Byrd Avenue (i.e. from Cloverleaf Shopping Center to just beyond the mall), because the lights are so long, and traffic is so bad. There are a million and one ways to get to all of those businesses without having to drive on US 33. I know back ways to everywhere in Harrisonburg. You pick this up when you spend your college years there.
Otherwise, I got some photos of Rocktown Infoshop, and I will be posting those on their site once I get settled on my new computer. Right now, everything’s kind of in disarray, as I’m still moving off the old computer. I also got some photos of that beacon at the Bridgewater airport, but I don’t think those came out very well. I was trying to time it with the shutter, but it didn’t work. I think I’m going to have to use my tripod to get the kind of images I’m looking for.
So all in all, I had a good day. And now I’m home again, to finish off this computer move, so I can hook up my new computer.
Web site: Editorial in The Breeze about Harrisonburg Crossing
Song: The Strongbadia National Anthem, from the Strong Bad Sings album
Quote: So all in all, I had fun, and I hope that Patrick and his father have a safe ride home.
Categories: Friends, Harrisonburg