County Road 21 is open
The other day I caught myself doing something that the
younger me would be embarrassed to learn that this is what he turns in to.
I actually went out of my way on a busy day to go to my
not-so-favorite Wal-Mart to buy hummingbird nectar for my new hummingbird
feeder.
“What’s the big deal?”
You ask.
“All the hip kids are in to Hummingbirds these days”, you
declare.
Duh, I respond.
Anybody who knows anything about ornithology knows that Hummingbirds are
tearing up the 30 something demographic right now. The big deal isn’t what I was buying but rather the fact
that I used the nectar as an excuse to test out the new Highway 21 shortly
after it opened last week.
I drove straight pass a Target store, a fine retailer of all
things ornithology, then kept driving by highway 18 just so I could see what
new concrete looks like on my way to buying sugar water for the cutest little
birds you’ll ever see.
The day it opened, I received 10 texts, emails, facebook
thingys etc letting me know that the road was finally open. To summarize, a road opened in Shakopee and the whole town of
Prior Lake was atwitter. And just
like I hate hearing what happened on Dancing With The Stars before seeing it
myself, I had to make it a point to check out this new road firsthand. Apparently, we need more to look
forward to in Prior Lake.
For 2 years I have been awaiting the opening of the new
section of Highway 21. At first it
was because I had been spreading rumors that Trader Joe’s was coming to town
when the road was complete so I was kind of hoping the project would get put on
hold so I wouldn’t have to answer the calls from the duped. I still maintain that Trader Joe’s is
considering it.
Now for the past year I’ve just been excited to get the road
open so the blood would stop shooting out of my ears every time I drove on
Highway 18 and tried to figure out which lane I was supposed to be in and how
it was all going to come together in the end.
So there I was finally turning north on Highway 21 two long
weeks after the glamorous ribbon cutting ceremony.
Oooh, look at that nice big sidewalk.
Aaah, look at that view. So serene!
Oooh, a nice new stoplight too. Much better than the kind that hangs on strings like at 42
and 13.
Aaah, crap! There goes Wal-Mart and I’m on my way to Bloomington with no
u-turn in sight.
Evidently I was so excited for this road on a sub-conscious
level that my brain wanted me to see it from both directions that day. So I took a quick tour of Bloomington,
very pretty this time of year by the way, and headed back for Wal-Mart.
It was 5:00 PM by the time I was back on 18 headed south and
it was interesting to see that nothing had changed from before the new road
opened. There was a long backup at
the light to stay on Highway 18 and just a few cars were zipping straight on to
Highway 21.
I did some investigating and found that the morning commute
hasn’t improved all that much either.
So why would someone go through all the trouble to open this
new highway that makes life easier for few? And just who is behind this
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?
Well I emailed Trader Joe’s to find out and they had “No
Comment”. That’s not actually what
they said. In fact, they haven’t
technically responded to the weird guy from the small town that got overly
excited about a new road i.e. me, but if they did, I bet that is what they’d
say.
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