Train Graffiti

Weather has been hot here lately (LINK). Not hot as in getting roasted so bad that you go into work the next day and people laugh at you because you look like a lobster, nay, a different kind of hot. I go outside to my bike and before even mounting the beast small beads of sweat can be felt upon the brow. Zero exertion necessary. A wall of humidity greets me every time I leave a building. No escaping it.

Oppressive as the weather may be, I don't control it, yet. Most evenings I take a bike ride around the locality and my trusty camera often comes along for the ride.

Minneapolis earned the nick name "Mill City" for agricultural reasons. Historically, grain, soybeans, wheat and a scatter of other crops grown all over the midwest came to Minneapolis by freight train to be milled into flour and other commodities. On a side note, many farmers have now jumped from unprofitable food crop production to growing crops that can be converted to ethanol, an auto fuel additive popular here in Minnesota. Some folk won't risk putting this clean burning fuel in their cars and are often heard to say, "I'm not putting that corn gas in my tank."

It is around this grain/railway infrastructure that I can be found on a sunny evening, riding my bike and taking photos in what must look like some foreign espionage operation. Truth be told, there was a run-in with the Railway Police a few months back. Trespassing was my crime, guilty was my plea. I think the Railway Police are that fake breed of law enforcement though, similar to supermarket security guards. Had they been a force to be reckoned with I would have seen a gun on the officers belt. Instead he asked what I was up to. "Why, just taking some photos officer, nothing more, nothing less." My honesty and acknowledgement of guilt was appreciated.

Something other than the luck o' the Irish allowed me to win the day. He didn't seem like the smartest guy in the world. After listening to my accent as I explained my activities he stopped me and said "Are you French?" They have a phrase for that back home, "Fuckin' eejit."

Some photos (LINK) from this evening.