directions?!?!

hey everyone
i know that most of you are much more familiar with these tournaments than i am, and i am hoping to tap that resource for driving direction help, being the shitty driver i am.

i am comin up from s jersey to stay with a friend at harvard (sucks) on fri nite, and then am driving to the centrum center in worcester the next morning. i plan to leave my car @ the train station in worcester, walk the .25miles to the arena, and train it back to boston sat nite. then, i'd take the same train back sunday to worcester, and after we fuck up new hampshire, i'd drive back to Cornell just in time for classes monday (as worcester is farther west than boston).

so, i guess, a couple questions:

1. i have some shitty directions from mapquest/yahoo to get me to harvard from jersey, but i was hoping someone in the NJ area might have better; the last time i used map quest directions, i drove back from LP and had to stop at the syracuse train station and the directions sent me literally to some random guy's door in the projects...

2. does anyone have any better directions from harvard to worcester that they've used in the past? the best i have is 90W to 122 to grafton street?

3. is it advisable to leave my car overnight at the worcester train station? is anyone familiar with the area? otherwise, driving around boston would be a pain in my ass; while i am from jersey, i freak at having to navigate cities.

4. lastly, has anyone who has made the trip from worcester to CU have better directions to cornell? once again, mapquest (like harvard) sucks.

i know all of this is last minute, but i would greatly appreciate any help from the faithful who know the roads, and the directions.

as you can see, i'm alot more worried about actually getting there than our hockey team-- i guess it's just alot of confidence in the fact that we are goin all the way this year, baby!

LGR, and thanks in advance for the help

-mike '04

I'd think you're better off leaving your car in Cambridge than in Worcester. Also, if you're staying at Harvard, remember that they're going on break this weekend so spots might be slightly easier to come by. If you show up on campus around 10 or 11 at night, there's usually spots on the street. Else go park at MIT. There's a place where you could probably leave your car all weekend but it is a long walk to the nearest T.

And try to avoid southern CT on a Friday afternoon. You'll be kicking yourself in the ass for 2 hours and then some if you don't.

jersey -> worcester
I know there's been discussion about the best way to get there by avoiding the nasty 95 traffic jam so I'll leave that to the rest of you.

cambridge-> worcester
90W to 9W and 9 will take you into Worcester. There's a street you turn left on (it forks off to the left, past the UMass med school campus) which will take you a rotary where one of the exits goes towards the outlets and the centrum. I don't remember what this road was called.

worcester -> ithaca
since you're in Worcester, you just hop right on 290 south, go to exit 8 or 7 (doesn't matter which one since both take you to the pike) and go west. drive to the end, into NY, follow 90 through exit b1 though albany (or just stay on the road and take thruway north).
merge back onto the thruway. exit 25A for 88. get off exit 8 (bainbridge - route 206) and drive for half an hour through bainbridge, triangle, and green. when you hit whitney point, take a right at the hess station and follow 79 to ithaca. this should take you under 5 hours from worcester with decent weather.

I live in southeastern PA (Allentown). My usual route to Boston, which I plan to take Friday, is to take I-78 to I-287 north, cross the Tappan Zee, Continue on I-287 as it becomes the Cross-Westchester Expressway, Get off at the Hutch north, which becomes the Merritt Parkway, which merges into I-91. At Hartford, get onto I-84 which ends at the Mass Pike. Take the Mass Pike east into Boston. I believe the exit for Cambridge is #18. How you get to the Tappan Zee depends on where in S. jersey you are. If I-287 isn't too far a diversion, it moves like a champ. The parkway will probably jam up in the NY area at rush hour.

Judy is quite right, though. Avoid S. Conn. between the NY border and New Haven at rush hour. I-95 is a disaster, the Merritt isn't much better. In that case, get yourself up to I-84 and take that through Danbury, Waterbury and Hartford. I-684 from the CWE would work to get you there, or take 287 to the trhuway and up to Newburgh.

Worcester to CU. When I was in school and the tournament was in Boston, we'd take the Mass Pike to the thruway to I-88 to NY-206 to NY-79 to get home.

Jersey to Lake Placid. For future reference, the shortest route from anywhere in Jersey is to get yourself to the Thruway and take the thruway to the Northway to NY-73.

thanks alot for the help everyone, i hope i make it there alive!!

-mike

well, i finally have the NJ to harvard and the worcester to CU directions figured out, thanks to everyone's help

just one more question-- when i go online, i am getting conflicting sets of directions from cambridge to worcester-- AAA and mapquest advise me to take 90W to exit 11 for rt 122 to grafton street-- anyone heard of this? thanks alot

-mike

Screw mapquest. I would advise you to go the Centrum webpage and take the directions off there. They are probably the best. As long as you know from what direction you are coming. (I assume so!) Here's the URL:
[www.centrumcentre.com]