Travelling Hopefully - A Shameful Admission of Failure

Failure!  Ah, the bitter sting of an ambition unfulfilled.  Keen followers of this blog will know that I travelled to St Paul, Minnesota for the sole purpose of visiting a vegan butcher in Minneapolis.  There I intended to take a selfie of myself consuming a meat based product and send said photo to certain vegan friends of mine who hopefully have a great sense of humour and wouldn't murder me on my return.

Well karma didn't like this (admittedly slightly malicious) plan and gave me a thorough bitch slapping as a consequence.  First Amtrak delivered me to St Paul some six hours late.  As I result I arrived in mid afternoon rather than in the morning.  After dropping my bags I then had to get to Minneapolis.  That was easy, unfortunately that's where easy ended.

Minneapolis seemed deserted when I arrived.  There are broad streets and big solid looking buildings but with the exception of those who got off the light rail with me (who rapidly vanished) there didn't seem to be any people.  Part of this was no doubt due to the fact that it was the middle of the week and most people were at work, school or court ordered rehab programs.  However part of it was to do with the fact that Minneapolis is obviously an indoor city.  Winter probably plays a large part in this.  Those big solid buildings all seemed to have shops inside them, taking up the first few floors no matter what else the building might be used for.  They also have sky bridges to allow people to get from on to the other without actually having to leave.  I crossed three blocks and managed to get a bit lost without actually going outside.  In fact towards the end I got a bit panicky trying to find a way out, I think I may actually have used a service access.

Back out on the streets I looked for public transport.  Minneapolis has plenty of this and the bus route map looked like a plate of tortured spaghetti.  One route ran straight past where I needed to go but I couldn't tell which one or where it started (and to be fair I was only aware in the broadest sense of where I actually was at the time) with shoulders slumped I admitted defeat.  It was cold and getting dark, hoping none of the handful of people around could sense my inner shame I slunk onto the light rail back to St Paul in utter defeat.  On the other hand...

I ate an elk!  At least I ate part of one.  As I slouched dejectedly back to my accomodation I passed a burger bar my host had recommended.  I entered and there it was on the menu; elkburger.  How could I resist?  Gator burgers were also on offer but I stuck resolutely to elk.  With onion rings of course.
For those vegans who have been chuckling at my tale of woe and are now horrified at my random elk butchery I offer this comfort.  Compared to the size of a full grown elk the amount I ate was sufficiently small that it is at least theoretically possible that the elk in question is still alive somewhere.  And what a story he's got to tell his kids.