Hoping his notes lead somewhere (8/13/03)

The phone call started well enough.

I’d been out mowing the lawn when my brother Steve called. He wanted to make sure we knew how to find his house in Minneapolis for an upcoming visit.

Though the family vacation is past, Sally and I were heading up to the north to look at some colleges she’s interested in. Steve and his wife Beth had invited us to stay at their place while we were in the neighborhood.

I grabbed a pen and a notebook and started jotting things down as he talked.

At the time, it all made sense.

But as I read over my notes, I’m not sure we’ll ever find the place.

Here’s a rough transcript of what I’d scrawled, with later questions in parentheses: “Lv Nfield on (or in?) 19 — then straight up 35 — 35 then (or them?) splits in E+W — stay (or straw? or strap?) w/35 W — evening rush near I-494 — bad traffic — odd section when 35 jogs (or joins?) another road for a mile — stay left or center — lve to left — 3-4 miles more to downtown — exit at 35th + 36th — go to 35th St — turn left — west — stay in left lane + 2 blocks is Nicolet (or Nice left?) — turn left then — 1 block to 36th then right on 36th St — go West on 36th it ends at Lake Calhoun (or Lake Cathouse?) — about 2 miles — T at Lake C — turn rt on parkway (or parkmy or Parkay?) around Lake to (completely unintelligible) Lake St — under RR bridge around Lake of Isles — one way around Lake to 22nd St — Rt on 22 — one block — then Rt on Irving — South 1/2 block — Lake Place angles off Irving to Right.”

When Steve finished, Beth got on the line to make sure I was clear on all this. I lied, and said it looked like a piece of cake.

“You’ve never been up here have you?” she asked, since mostly they’ve returned to Indiana for family gatherings.

Oh, sure, I said. Years ago.

“Now I’ve figured out why you’ve never moved,” I told her. “Once you found that place you were afraid you’d never find it again.”

Piece of cake, right? We’ll see.[[In-content Ad]]