Mall of America

I did some traveling in July 1993 where I flew alone to Minneapolis and spent a long weekend in Minnesota. I stayed at the Wasie Center of the Abbott Northwestern Hospital for two nights. On Saturday, I attended a conference at the Minneapolis Children’s Medical Center. It was a conference dealing with children born with medical conditions similar to what I had to deal with. When I arrived, someone asked me about my child. I said, "I'm the child." I was the then the center of attention to a few people who met me, who realized I was a survivor. There were a few speakers and when they asked for questions or comments from the audience, I had a few suggestions to offer.

My flight back home wouldn’t leave until Monday evening so I had two days to kill. I rented a car so on Sunday morning I headed north. The Mississippi River was overflowing its banks in nearby St. Paul, and roads were flooded here and there in southern Minnesota, so northbound was the best bet for a decent addendum to my vacation. I headed for Duluth. I would visit the Mall of America on my way back.

Duluth is right on the tip of Lake Superior. A small city of ships, granaries, and ore docks. I toured the S.S. William A. Irvin, a 610-foot steam ship. Then I took a cruise on a tour boat on to Lake Superior for a trip to Superior, Wisconsin, past the docks and factories, being narrated all the way. It was refreshingly cold for July, temps in the 50s or 60s.

At the end of the day I stayed at a motel in town and headed south to Minneapolis in the morning. It was 42 degrees and cloudless. You could see for miles and miles. I stopped at a small restaurant along the way for breakfast for beef hash, scrambled eggs, and sourdough bread. Pure heaven! I even stopped at the Grand Casino in Hinkley, Minnesota, prepared to lose $10, which I did. I escaped before I would go to the next $10. I’m not much of a gambler.

On the way I listened to Talk Radio which discussed the bombing of Baghdad in retaliation for the plot against President Bush. Most thought it was a bad move on President Clinton’s part. If we want to have a reputation as a peace-loving nation, we shouldn’t resort to aggression like that. One caller suggested that they should have taken the Kuwaiti policemen that discovered the plot, brought them to the U.S. and gave them well-publicized commendations, to show to the Iraqi people, and the world, that we indeed are an honorable country. But maybe we’re not so honorable these days.

I just had to visit the famed Mall of America, the largest shopping mall in the country. It wasn’t far from where I had rented the car so I traveled the 150+ miles back to Minneapolis and Bloomington and parked on one of the decks of the huge parking garage. I locked the car and headed inside. I walked all over the place—stopped here and there to buy something, but just mostly looked around. It is an interesting place. There were a few courtesy desks here and there.

About three hours before flight time I got tired of walking and headed back to the car. I put my hand in my pocket for the keys…and they weren’t there! I searched all my pockets for the keys…at least twice! I didn’t really panic for I could probably contact the rental agency who might have another set, but I wanted to find those keys.

I went into the men’s room. Not there. To Camp Snoopy, the adventure park, and the place I bought a taco salad. Not there. To the place I bought some post cards. The manager said there was a Lost and Found but he was rather cynical about it. “You better hope they don’t have them, you’ll have to sign your life away to retrieve them.” I really didn’t understand his logic.

I went to one of the courtesy and asked if anyone turned in any car keys. A lady showed me a set. They weren’t the ones. It would be only one key. The lady asked the supervisor who came along. She said she remembered seeing a key at one of the other stations. She called and checked. By golly, they were there! On the other side of the mall. She told the person someone would be along to claim them. I walked over to the south side and got the keys. I didn’t have to sign anything. You can believe I held onto those keys tightly as I headed for the car.

The 6:15 flight was delayed, wouldn’t you know! The announcer told us four flight attendants for this flight were still coming in on another flight. We would depart as soon as they got here. Later, it was announced that a couple of airline managers were aboard the flight and agreed to help in boarding the passengers, which would then take off as soon as the attendants arrived. Then we sat about 10 minutes in the plane until the flight attendants scrambled aboard and we were off.

As soon as we took off and leveled off at 37,000 feet, the Captain announced that that there would be some heavy weather enroute to Philadelphia so they were taking a more northerly tack over Wisconsin, Michigan, and then south over Harrisburg and southeast to Philadelphia. We can expect a bumpy ride here and there. And bumpy it was. I could feel the plane crabbing a little (being pushed a little sideways) when hit by a crosswind. It took only 2 hours flying time but it was after 10 p.m. when we arrived in Philadelphia safe and sound. I was glad when I finally got home at 11 p.m.