After camping in Vermont, it wasn’t easy transitioning to Massachusetts. Our first stop was Greenfield, where we met Mom for a burrito dinner. While we were waiting for her, we took the dogs for a walk. After being sufficiently freaked out by camping, they were really freaked out by the bustle of this small city. We put them in the car and rolled down the windows because if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the dogs, it’s that they LOVE the back of the car. It’s their safe place.
But, once we’d sat down to eat our burritos, we noticed one of the waitresses walking around talking to each of the tables. When she came to ours she asked if we’d left our dogs in the car. We told her we had and she said that some other customer had complained about seeing panting dogs in somebody’s car. So while this mystery person did feel compelled to meddle, they also recognized the socially awkward situation it might engender. But they were too chickenshit to deal with it and so they got a waitress involved.
We brought the dogs out and they both immediately looked much more uncomfortable. Brady got freaked out by a passing lab and subsequently freaked out the lab by barking. Exactly the kind of situation we were trying to avoid.
Mom told us that in nearby Hadley, you can get a ticket in the $hundreds for leaving your dog in a car. (It’s true!) Combined with the increase in asshole drivers and generally surly disposition of the place, we didn’t feel very welcome after beautiful, friendly Vermont.
I was going to take a picture of the Mass welcome sign on the Pike and photoshop it to reflect my feelings, but didn’t get ever get a clear shot. Fortunately, the Internet took the picture of the same sign for me! I fixed that one instead (click it):