The Aerie
Took a free course on ITIL - an IT-management best-practices library for which I will probably sit an exam in a couple of weeks. It was way down in Edina, a local home to the nouveaux riches which legend suggests is an acronym for "Every Day I Need Attention." Once a suburb and now part of the perimeter of Minneapolis, there is no good route to and from Edina and Points Beyond on certain days and times. Minneapolis' deficient freeway system nowhere better displays its failings than on the Crosstown and I-494 during rush hours.
Today when I left the class I passed over a freeway that was a literal, not virtual, parking lot, every lane jammed with unmoving traffic, the entrance ramps backing up onto the city streets.
This reminded me of the months I spent working at the Best Buy corporate headquarters back when it was in Eden Prairie (which is even further beyond Edina). I became accustomed to driving 22 miles home every day on city streets.
Today's trip was not bad at all. I took "American Boulevard" east to Lyndale Avenue, north on Lyndale to Minnehaha Parkway, and then glided my leisurely way home on the parkway, moving at a sedate 30 MPH and watching the park, the trees, and the stream for which the parkway is named. Looping through south Minneapolis, Minnehaha Parkway is one of those public secret treasures known to those who live here. On it you can travel easily, if not quickly, from downtown Minneapolis to the airport and Mall of America, or over to the Lakes and Uptown, at a predictable 30 MPH.
No traffic with which to contend, few unexpected delays, and a pleasant, green journey from start to end. Sometimes you get behind some self-righteous or timid driver who refuses to accelerate up to the speed limit of 25 MPH, and that can be frustrating since most cars seem to have an idle speed higher than that. Sometimes you come up behind bikers who believe their Tour-de-France spandex and reflective sunglasses would clash if they got off the parkway (to which, admittedly, they are entitled as vehicles) and pedaled on the very-un-hip bike path, not two feet to their right.
But most times its a relaxing trip right through the heart of Minneapolis, a trip bypassing the frenetic, overcrowded, aggressive freeways.
Today's trip was particularly nice. On Lyndale Avenue I spotted one of those discount-baked-goods stores that have mostly migrated out of my lower-income part of the city, and grabbed some cheap products for home. Then I crossed the street and picked up a dozen ears of Minnesota sweet corn for $5. That's $20 of commerce which I would NOT have conducted had I taken the freeway system home. And I remain confident that even with my stops along the way, I reached my home sooner than I would have had I pulled into line on the 494 entrance ramp. Heck, I'd probably still be there now!
On the way home, I also spotted a computer being discarded at the streetcorner, and stopped to glance at it. I have tried to break myself of the habit of picking up roadside computer equipment, but this relic was easy to ignore: an IBM 486 PC! Probably 15 years old!
So instead of a hot, noisy, frazzled trip home, I had a relaxing, inexpensive, and entertaining trip home.
Sometimes it's nice to break with the crowd...
Posted by Albatross at July 8, 2005 7:03 PM