On Sunday I rode the megabus up to Minneapolis so that today I could drive this 10-foot UHaul with Al’s stuff in it back to Madison. It was a lot easier than I had worried it was going to be; none of the things I fretted about came to pass: there was a truck when we showed up at the place to pick it up, I didn’t get lost driving it in the Twins, we got a perfect overnight parking spot for the truck in front of the place Al was moving out of, I didn’t hit any other cars with the truck, the weather was just fine, the highway driving was OK, and I even got the thing pulled into my own driveway without hitting the house. Still, it wasn’t an experience I’m wanting to repeat any time soon.
It was fun being in Minneapolis – a real city, at its grey & gritty best, late winter dirty snow clumps lining the streets, salt and grime covered cars, and everyone hunched up inside of their winter jackets with hoods over their faces. On my way to get Al this morning I stopped to get coffee & bagels in a strip mall with a Starbucks and a Bruegger’s, and there were more languages than I usually hear in Madison – except on the 80 campus bus. There were big African men, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes, a few city ladies, black & white & yammering on cell phones, one with long painted nails, and especially at Starbucks the baristas were all blond Midwestern college girls – the one I paid for my coffee could’ve been one of Al’s girlfriend’s sorority sisters. At the Bruegger’s, the kid who took my money looked and sounded like Jonah Hill, but was a few shades darker.
But I was happy to get home safe and sound, by 3:00 – I left my toothbrush at the friend’s house I stayed at – but he’ll being it to Madison his next trip.
We were the 2nd set of people to rent this truck - only 345 miles on it when we picked it up, and already equipped with graffiti
