Live from Minnesota: Planes, Trains, and Buses Part 4

(continued from previous posts) ... After standing under the "bus stop" for about 10 minutes a bus pulled up. The driver was right! Thank God he'd said something to me or I'd have been screwed...

Wait a minute....

It was the same bus and driver again.

He told me to climb aboard, he was going to take me to where I needed to go. I wanted to confirm that we both had the same final destination in mind. I showed him the address of the Holiday Inn. He didn't know where that was. He pulled out his map, I pulled out my map. He said he once saw a hotel "here" and "here" he pointed out. I asked if either was a Holiday Inn, he said maybe. Ok, now we're getting somewhere. I kept asking which bus stop would connect me with a bus that went "here". Eventually he/we decided that I needed to be back at the stop I was originally at. I stepped off the bus and headed back.

Upon returning to the stop there was about a dozen people from Opportunity Partners waiting around. That must mean a bus was coming soon. Yes.

Eventually a bus did come, in fact two of them. Neither were the route I wanted. All the other people boarded one of the buses. About 20 minutes passed and finally another bus stopped. It was labeled "12C" I needed 12. The bus driver asked if I was waiting for the bus. "Yes" I replied. "Then get on, this is the bus for you." Having heard this before (although being able to understand it much more clearly now) I was skeptical. I told her I needed the 12. She said this was and she just hadn't changed her display yet. Whew. That was close.

I boarded the bus and waited about 10 minutes while she had her cigarette break. Then we were off. I knew my ride would be short (<10 minutes according to my planner) so I was alert to when my stop might come up. For some reason this driver wasn't calling out the stops. That's fine, I figured I could spot a Holiday Inn from a mile away.

Of course, I was wrong. We went by several other hotels that gave me false alarms before I finally actually missed my stop. The hotel had a large script "H" on it. I knew for a fact that a Hilton was in the area. I also know that Hyatt exists. Large script "H" does not equal Holiday Inn to me. Maybe it should. As we were going past my hotel I recognized the address on the side "10985", which I'd committed to memory at this point.

"What stop was that?" I asked.
"What do you mean stop?" replied the driver.
"What stop was that?" I was dumbfounded as to how rephrase the question. Buses stop at things called bus stops. The stops are named so that you can know where you are going. Otherwise everyone would get on and say "take me to the bus stop" and then someone's head would explode and the earth would cease to exist as we know it. This almost happened that day.

"This is Red Circle Drive, but that's the road not the stop." The driver said.
"OK, I think that was my stop back there, let me off at the next place you can stop."
"The next stop is around the corner a ways down." She said.
"Just let me off here please." I pleaded as she kept driving.

I exited the bus 1/2 mile downhill of where I needed to be.