Yes, things have changed a bit since the day when all the parking they needed at the General Store was someplace to tie up the horses after a long day’s ride.
But maybe we’re headed back down that trail a piece.
Spotted on Silver Lake Road – a motorized scooter abandoned in a snowbank, connected by cable to an MTC bus stop sign.
I have a hunch, but what do you think is going on here?
Trail Baboon 
Hmm. I’m thinking someone has a charming faith in human nature and the strength of a cable in the face of a bolt cutter.
My sense of humor and cleaverness is seriously impsired this morning.
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Rise and Shine Baboons!
Ooh, I love a small mystery like this. It appears a 13 year-old went to a bus stop and rode off on the bus to somewhere, planning to return. There are just so many questions, though.
Where is this? What road, what town, what bus line?
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New Brighton, on Silver Lake Road, just south of I-694. Bus route 25
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the clue is the freshly plowed snow and the scooter with no fenders. the road slop was getting too much glop on the drivers back so he parked it in order to ride the bus to the final destination being happy to return at days end to ride home when road conditions were improved.
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Silver Lake Road is too busy to get very far on a scooter like this. While remaining alive.
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Given how deep that back wheel is covered in snow, I think this is someone who filled a backpack with the bare necessities (clean undies, toothbrush, a good book, Visa card for purchases, maybe a granola bar or two), rode his or her trusty steed to the bus stop and hopped on with the intent of going all the way to the airport (or train station), heading someplace warmer for the winter having had Just Too Much of January. Perhaps they held out some hope that the scooter would still be there come spring, but mostly wanted to make sure some punk kid wouldn’t ride off on it and hurt themselves. They will come home to a scooter in need of some TLC, a few dead plants, and possibly a cranky cat if they forgot to ask the neighbor to feed it.
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The rider realized he was not going to be able to transport the vase of Valentine’s Day flowers safely on the scooter, so he picked up a Car2Go car from here.
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The owner fled the scene in severe pain having accepted the tongue to metal challenge.
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I think it’s merely the latest incarnation of park ‘n ride (21st century-style).
Chris in Owatonna
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This is obviously a form of MTC advertising. They are saying, “Why in heck d’ya want to ride a bike or scooter in a Minnesota winter when you could be toasty warm in a bus?”
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I’m not coming up with anything – maybe they thought they could bring it on the bus, driver said Nope, so they had to lash ‘er up and went anyway.
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said if you don’t get all your spelling words right I’m going to tie old Nelliebell to a road sign and you’ll be done with it
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One of the bars in our town has a hitching post for anyone who rides their horse in for a drink.
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The hitching post is outside the bar, I presume.
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Yep. Right between the bar and the former German-Hungarian Club.
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are there a lot of former german hungrians in your town or did they leave when the boom unboomed?
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This place is lousy with German Hungarians and has been since the early 1900’s.
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every house has a good goulash recipe
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This is the work of an extreme idealist who finally realized their plan to replace a car with a small motorized scooter to reduce their carbon foot print was not going to work. They were hoping that somehow they could ride along the edge of that busy road. They were nearly run over by several cars when they realized their plan was not working. Fortunately they were near that bus stop when they decided their plan was too risky and abandoned the plan by getting on a bus leaving the scooter behind.
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I think someone got pulled over for SWI (Scooting while Intoxicated) and took a ride in a police car while the scooter was left behind.
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Hee hee.
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I can tell this is a photo from Minnesota, not Oregon. In Oregon thieves snicker at cables meant to protect bikes. Petty crime is far more pervasive here than in the Twin Cities. If you buy an expensive bike it might be stolen before you’ve had it one day.
There was a recent media flurry when a stolen bike fitted by cops with a radio device was traced to a guy widely known as The Kingpin. (For scholars of Dickens, this man is a modern Fagin.) He was filmed dismantling the bait bike less than an hour after it was stolen. This man is locally famous. He told a TV reporter: “If you are dumb enough to put a $2,500 bike on the back of your car, I’m dumb enough to take it.”
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I think that tim’s first theory makes sense even if the idea of riding a motorized scooter on Silver Lake Road, and under those road conditions, doesn’t. Then again, since when did a theory have to make sense to be aired on the Trail? Unfortunately, my creative juices are not flowing this morning, so no wacky scenario comes to mind.
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Weren’t you guys planning to go East for a funeral?
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Yep, Chicago, tomorrow.
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Good luck. If it is just Chicago, you shouldn’t encounter bad weather.
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Morning all. All you other baboons are doing a much better job of imagining a reality for Dale’s photo. I agree with all of you!
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One of my favorite Book of Nonsense Verse was, illustrated by Wallace Tripp. The poem I’m thinking of (and the title of said book) goes:
“As I was standing in the street,
as quiet as could be,
A great big ugly man came up
and tied his horse to me.”
Here’s the link – I wish it would show the cover picture.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=mWyfQKVh&pccid=zLWQUbBI&id=273C80DBB415AB82622B2A946AB0AAB6DCA4D6F8&pmid=84FD3A8340FBE66C165136803A6623735B354F44&q=a+great+big+ugly+man+came+up&psimid=608037399989126021&iss=VSI&selectedIndex=0&count=35
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great title
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how about the guy went to his morning activity in minnesota optimistic fashion figuring how bad could an inch of show be and when it turned out to be bad enough to make the sidewalks he had taken in the morning a bad plan a he decided to plan b and come back on thursday to get his scooter which would be sitting in a puddle as the balmy 37 degree weather melted away all evidence of tundra from our earlier 48 hour bout with ol man winter.
wimpy winter of 16
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A person who was planning to take that scooter along on a bus trip was told that there wasn’t room for it. The person thought that buses which allow bikes on them or let people stow bikes in racks on the front of them should have a place to put his scooter.
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Dale, what was your hunch?
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There’s a new blog for today, but you need to scroll down to reach it. I’ve alerted Dale.
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