Everyday Adventures Into the Sublime

It was an adventurous couple of days this past week when a few coworkers and myself had to go to the Twin Cities for a work–related event. We headed down on Tuesday, having our first meeting on Wednesday quite early in the day. Typically, with breaks, it usually only takes about six hours to get down there...

But...

Tuesday was anything but an ordinary day!

A little after midnight, the winds picked up and were blowing right around 30 miles per hour with blasts up to 45. It was also very warm, hovering right around freezing. When I hit the road to go to my coworker’s house (Kate was driving), there were drifts over ice. She lives on the outskirts of a small town about 10 miles east of where I live, and there are some serious curves right before you get to that town. As I was going around the first, the snow was deep and looked like pie crust dough when you’re first cutting the shortening into the flour. If I were going faster or hadn’t been paying attention, I would have ended up in the ditch along with the two cars already there.

Kate and I discussed if we should wait at her place, which we did for about an hour when it cleared a bit. The first part of our trip, down to the Fargo-Moorhead area, usually only takes about an hour. Tuesday, it was closer to an hour and a half. The first 30 miles, the roads were icy and covered with pillow drifts. After that, it cleared and was good driving. We picked up Pat at the local Dairy Queen, then, headed out to I-94 heading east.

Not a lot of traffic on the freeway. Just a few semis and us. We didn’t really think it was strange until we got about fifteen miles into Minnesota and the roads started turning crappy again. Mega-crappy! We had a good track, though, just like we were a bit behind a snow plow. But, as we got closer to Rothsay, the road got worse. We counted four semis in the ditch on the eastbound lane, including one that was facing the direction it was coming from. At one point, I said to Kate, “It’s almost like the freeway is closed and we aren’t supposed to be out here.”

It was closed.

We weren’t supposed to be out there!

We pulled into Fergus Falls for lunch, and while we were there, we found out that the freeway was closed from Valley City, ND to Osakis, MN, some 150 miles. We got on the I-94 at one of the few entrances that weren’t barricaded. Mainly, it was the west bound lanes that were closed, primarily because of the semis that were in the ditch.

The nasty weather wasn’t the only excitement in Fegus that day. The Bank of America was held up that morning at 10 a.m. during the worst of the storm. The visibility was so limited that no one even knew what the get-away vehicle looked like. I haven’t heard any more about it, and haven’t had time to look for info, either.

By three p.m., the road was opened again, and though the next fifty miles were still pretty nasty, we made pretty good time. Shortly after Alexandria, MN, the road opened up. Except for the heavy traffic, it was pretty easy driving all the way to Bloomington.

The hotel we stayed at was right near the Mega Maul and the airport. I’ve been to the airport many times, but never to the Maul. I just had no desire to go there. Kate and Pat, however, thought that we should go to Bubba Gumps for supper. Since I was outnumbered and didn’t have my own wheels, I went along.

I liked Bubba Gumps. Haven’t had good seafood in a long time, and though it wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, it was a damn sight better than what you get at Dead Mobster. Our waitress, Rachel, was a hoot. Now, if you’ve never been to a Bubba Gumps, one of the things the wait staff does is ask trivia questions from the movie Forrest Gump. We did pretty good, but, then, I missed a fairly easy question. I told Rachel that she needed to be nice to us, and told her about the trip upon the closed freeway all the way down to Fergus.

“What kinda name is Fergus Falls anyway,” she asked.

“I think it was named after a Scottish man with halitosis.”

“Could be, could be.”

“I think it’s funny,” I continued, “a friend of mine in Pennsylvania thinks it’s a weird name. This coming from a woman that lives in a state with towns named Intercourse and Blue Balls.”

“Hey! I’ve been there!,” Rachel said.

“Oh?” I replied without missing a beat. “Which one?”

Rachel was, I must say, a very witty and articulate young lady. But, when posed with that question, she stopped, her mouth dropped open, and she turned bright red.

I did ask it in all innocence.

It wasn’t much later that we headed back to the hotel, and I was in bed not much later. I was completely whooped from the day, and Wednesday was going to be a long, busy day as well.

I think I would have slept later if the guy in the next room didn’t have a bit of OCD. He must have taken at least eight showers through the course of the night.

Now, like I said, Wednesday was busy. I called one of my good friends once we got done, however, and Per and I decided to go out to one of his favorite places in St. Paul for supper. He picked me up, we had a beer at the hotel, went to the restaurant and met up with another guy, Thor Truls. I’ve known these guys since they were 10. Amazing. It was really good to talk with them, and I would have loved to be out longer with them, but, I needed to be up early again on Thursday as well. Per dropped me off at the hotel, and again, I was in bed fairly early.

I don’t know if I had the same or different neighbors. All I know was that they were very vocal. Uncle Willy Shakespeare would have said they were busy making the beast with two backs. They started at 11:30 or so, and finished at around 2:30. I’ve gotta admire stamina like that. At one point, I was tempted to call them and ask if they needed me to come and tag-in. I was also tempted to call and give them some encouragement. I wonder how they would have reacted if I yelled “Bravo! Bravo! Encore!”

Anyway...it was an adventurous trip. I can’t wait for my next trip to the Cities.