Bridge collapses

Today we could have died.

Max and I arrived in Minneapolis/St. Paul. My Uncle Mark picked us up at the airport and then we stopped by Ingebretson's. Mark tried to convince Max that he really wanted some blood sausage, but Max wasn't convinced. He gave us a brief tour of Minneapolis, including my great-grandparent's old house (which didn't look too good with broken windows, etc.). It was an immigrant area when they lived there in the early 20th century. On the way to his house in North Oaks, he announced we were going over the Mighty Mississippi! We were on Interstate 35W, on a bridge I had been on countless times.

We spent the day hanging out, catching sunfish, and watching the wild turkeys strolling around. Oh, and don't forget the ATV, Max says. He drove it himself part of the time.

In the evening we headed to a Twin's game in Minneapolis. Usually we would go over the bridge on Interstate 35W to get there, but there was so much traffic and construction earlier that Mark took another route. He had some free tickets to the game and a free tailgating type meal that we went to. Then we went in to the game. I had never been to the metrodome, and it was very loud. After an hour or so, I thought I heard my phone ringing and noticed that I had missed calls from my Aunt Karen, my brother John, and my father. I tried to listen to the messages, but it was so loud that I could only hear something about bridges collapsing and forgotten blackberries.

I called Karen back and she said "Are you all right?" Then she explained that the highway bridge had collapsed and she was afraid we were on it. People around us filled us in about the tragedy. Now we had an explanation for the sirens we had been hearing. We tried to watch the game but it was too hard to concentrate, so we left early. They kept running announcements on the screen about how all the bridges were closed and what alternate routes to use. It took us very little time to get back, and Karen was very happy to see us. She had called everyone to let them know that we might be involved and they were all concerned about us.