Picture if you will …
… two full-grown men in a mid-size sedan looking for a bookstore on the, University of Minnesota Campus, Dinky Town.
“I know it’s around here somewhere, I just don’t see a sign for it, do you see a sign for it,” says the driver. “I wonder if there is just no signage on the building?”
“Arrived! Your destination is on your right,” says a very proud Siri.
The passenger laughs, “Well I see bookshelves in that window, there must be a bookstore in there, but where’s the front door?”
This is the scenario. The men in the car, my buddy Nate and myself, are battling Dinky Town midday on a Sunday. It’s a perfect day; Shannon and Nate’s wife Jess, are going to a painting class so we have time to kill.
The sunshine is perfect, the weather is perfect and the time of day is perfect. In fact, everything is perfect except for the two guys in the car.
“Oh, there’s Brasa, I’ve been here before,” says Nate. “There should be parking right around the corner he…”
The sentence is cut short by the fact that there were NO parking spots, just another traffic light to wait at. We wait and Nate, who if you haven’t figured out yet, is driving (by the way Nate, did I mention I appreciated you driving!) decides to try that again and begins to circle around after a few blocks.
“All right, let’s just cut down this street and then we can turn right and…” I start to giggle as the large ONE WAY sign points to the LEFT.
Nate regains his composure, “I guess we’ll just go left.”
I am giggling out loud now and I mimic him, “I guess we’ll just go left.”
We circle around the large campus and make another attempt at it. This time there is NO parking spots as the crowd on the streets is starting to gain in number. After an ordeal with a parking spot that is the size of a POSTAGE STAMP and coming to the realization that parallel parking is not my friend’s strong suit, we continued down the road this time continuing straight, because doing the same path over again would just be SILLY. We turn left a couple of blocks down and come around the block to a serious confusion …
… Brasa is now on the OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE STREET! I am now in full-laugh mode.
“Hey, who picked up your restaurant and put it on the OTHER SIDE of the street?” I tried to say the words as serious as possible but broke down about half way through the delivery.
I look at my friend who has a very serious look of shock on his face.
“Look! There’s Brasa!” I said as quirky as possible.
He begins to laugh, I’m laughing, and on the THIRD trip around we found a parking spot … almost right in front of Brasa.
Now, while this isn’t anything new for either him or I, THIS is normally how MOST of our road trips go. Nate does the driving (Did I mention Nate, that I appreciated you were driving?) and I pay for parking. Team work! He’s the driver and I’m the …Passenger … Princess.
We do this about once a month or try to. We pick out an obscure bookstore, at least out of our local circle, plan a road trip, meet up, get a bite to eat and then go book shopping. It’s a thing.
You know what? I love it. I look forward to it every time. You know what else? The story above is not an isolated incident either, something like this happens EVERY time. I can’t tell if we are just lucky or are magnets for just stupid stuff. I don’t care, we laugh, we talk, we talk about our wives and we get to go to some great stores across the Twin Cities.
Here’s to Bookstores, Drivers and Passenger Princesses!
Have a great week and don’t let “them” get to you!
