Thursday's tend to be a busy day for me. At the office all day and then my weekly Toastmasters meeting at Chatterbox Pub in
Highland Park, St Paul. Last night I decided after the meeting to run home grab some clothes and hang out with this amazing guy Dante! He is truly amazing and I am very happy to have him in my life.
Well he lives in uptown and me downtown
St Paul. Previously I have taken the 94C to
Minneapolis and then the 17 to uptown. This is usually a pretty quick and painless process. Last night I decided to see if there was a more direct route to uptown...behold the 21 or so I thought. Now I am a fairly level headed guy and do not get worked up about much. As you can tell from above I was really excited to be spending the night with Dante and was anxious to get over there. Not knowing anything about the 21 I ask the driver as I boarded if he went to uptown and in a slow, sluggish ho hum way he said "sure". If only I have studied that response more in depth before venturing for a seat...But alas I passed it off as he was tired.
We proceeded thru Downtown St Paul stopping at EVERY bus stop regardless of people present or not. I thought to myself "self, he probably only does this downtown and will speed up soon"... As we wound up thru the Summit Hill neighborhood I found the bus slowly losing it momentum and almost coasting thru the streets. My first thought was to run up front and offer the driver a red bull at the next stop or to ensure that the bus was full of gas and due to the high gas prices we were not coasting to reserve fuel. As we came to each stop and I kept an eye up front it was almost as if the driver was scared of the other cars on the road, as if he were the one driving the 2,000 lb vehicle and they were driving the 28,000 lb buses. As I watched every car behind us drive past as he waiting for the perfect moment to pull out. One thing I do always remember Minnesota Statute 169.20 sub 7 which says that all buses have the right of way and any vehicle must yield when a bus is pulling out. They post the darn thing on the back of the bus.
As we travel along
Selby Ave I am starting to get a little tired and then come
Lexington Ave and Selby...As we approached the intersection there was a car in the middle lane that was continuing on
Selby Ave and we were planning to turn right down to
Marshall. Well, it was almost as if this vail of fear the driver had for other cars disappeared... he attempted to squeeze this giant bus between the snow bank at the car as we inched forward you could here the snow bank rubbing the side of the bus and it was quite loud many people on the bus looking over at the snow for fear it was going to come crashing thru the back door, when suddenly without warning we all felt a jolt and looked to the left. As the driver was trying to turn the back of the bus swung out and struck the car...did that faze this now fearless driver, not in the least. He pushed the gas and took off. In that moment of adrenalin infused excitement he had his drive back...if only it had lasted the rest of the way to Uptown. We travelled down
Lake Street across the river and again regardless of people being in the shelters or not he would slow to a crawl and peer into the shelter. Now I know I have only been riding the bus for a few weeks but the number one rule of using mass transit is that when you see a bus coming regardless of number or time you make yourself known by coming out of the shelter in the off chance that it is your bus. Am I missing that some people do not know that and cower in the shelter?
Upon reaching Hiawatha and Lake it felt as if we sat at the stop for 10 minutes as people slowly took their time searching thru purses to find some change, talking in the door... or my favorite the kids who insist that their pants should be worn at their ankles as to leave nothing hidden or private and prevent them from walking properly so that it takes them 5 extra minutes to walk 5 feet as they have to hold the pants up and waddle...really am I missing something and that is attractive now?
Upon reaching the uptown station one hour and 25 minutes after leaving the 6th and
Jackson station in
St Paul I felt compelled to ask the driver if he had drive issues or if he was always that slow. However, I held my tongue and decided that from now on even if there is a little more walking involved we will be taking the 94 to the 17 from now on to Dante's as the 94 drivers know how to drive!
The night ended amazingly as I arrived battered and bruised from my venture on the 21 to the home of Dante and my buddy Mingus!
More exciting adventures to follow!
