St Paul Winter Carnival Day 1

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Friday Feb 3^rd7 AM San Antonio to Saint Paul

I’m at the airport at the MacDonalds eating breakfast and coffee and doing some homework on my computer waiting for my flight. The leg of my flight from Denver to St Paul was canceled so United put me on a nonstop Delta flight DL5722 that doesn’t leave till 1143AM. It was not a bad deal really because a nonstop will get me to Minneapolis/St Paul airport only about ½ hour later than the other flight that will stop in Denver would. I had breakfast at MacDonalds so I could use their Wi-Fi but apparently the airport has Wi-Fi so I could have just logged on….still…I wanted some coffee.

The security here is much more intense than it was in New York…. I know its main purpose anyway is to provide jobs and lucrative contracts to the right people. And avoid lawsuits. And to reassure timid and easily frightened people that the government is doing something to protect them. We had to take everything out of our pockets and go through a body scan (by a female security whatever) and then I was frisked by a male security whatever…..geee. I always have believed and still do that personal freedom is more important than the Illusion of security but when I am trying to fly that is not the time to argue about it.

In any case the airport is a nice one with several restaurants and stores and it has FREE Wi-Fi so it isn’t a bad place to get some homework done while waiting for my flight. There are terminals for laptops as well as plugs for plugging laptops and cell phones, etc in all over the airport. These were certainly handy for someone waiting for a flight and not wanting to run their laptop battery down.

Friday evening –I arrived safely at the Minneapolis/St Paul airport and after collecting my luggage after a marathon walk I went down the escalators to catch a one stop tram which took me to the transit center where I would catch the #54 bus into St Paul. There were two shelters at the bus stop, one marked for the Mall of America, and one marked for downtown St Paul. I took a rather crowded bus into St Paul which cost $2.25 because it was rush hour.

If I had been going into Minneapolis I could have taken the Hiawatha Light rail train ( #55). Or taken the same train line to the Mall of America. When I got into St Paul the #54 bus goes onto 5^th street and as the Hotel 340 where I was staying was on Cedar Street between 5^th and 4^th street I pulled the rope when we approached Cedar Street and walked over to my hotel. The hotel 340 is very well disguised because on the main entry at 340 Cedar Street it says “Saint Paul Athletic Club” and the desk for the hotel says “Vniversity Club”…..??!! It shares the same building with The College of St Scholastica. In any case I got checked into my room and disencumbered myself of my suitcase, then walked over on the enclosed climate controlled skyway to Rice Park to check out the festival. I can’t say I was very impressed. The park had a bar constructed of Ice selling drinks and a singer called “Lonesome Ron” singing country western songs. Pretty pathetic actually for what is touted as a major festival. The previous week had been warm and most of the ice sculptures were in various stages of melting and falling apart. The single snow sculpture which had been constructed of snow trucked in by some organization was a wreck as well….sigh. There were maybe 20 people there including the people attending the bar. No wonder Ron was Lonesome.

I listened to Lonesome Ron for a bit and then decided to find a store to get some supplies for the next 5 days. I found a Walgreens that closed at 7PM on Wabasha Street between 6^th and 7^th street and got some restaurant style corn chips, milk, paper towels, paper plates, paper cups etc. and just decided to call it a day and go back to my room. On the way back I found a convenience store on Wabasha street just north of 4^th street as well and got my Powerball ticket as the jackpot was $200 million. No doubt my style of traveling would change if I won that.

My room had a nice size refrigerator and a microwave so I fixed up some nachos using some cheese I had brought in my snack bag from Texas and figured that I would begin again tomorrow.

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Photos

Rice Park
The Winter Carnival was held in Rice Park. The previous week had been a warm one and most of the ice sculptures had partially melted. It was a sad spectacle

Lonesome Ron
There was a singer called Lonesome Ron who was singing country western songs. He was pretty good actually. There wasn't much going on. No wonder he was lonesome.