Coming back from South Dakota, my flight (Northwest) landed at gate A11 of Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. I got out and asked the desk clerk which gate I needed to go to for the flight to Portland (also Northwest), and he told me: “F10. You’ve got a long way to go.”
Indeed he was right. Because right about then the tram connecting the concourses in the airport broke down or something and everyone was forced to hoof it. Just to rub it in, MSP — like a lot of malls — has an indoor walking route, a 1.4 mile loop between the C, D, and G concourses. A “20 – 40 minute heart-healthy walk” as they call it. Well, since the A concourse sticks off the end of C (and the loop doesn’t include all of C) I got to do something roughly equivalent to the loop along with my luggage. My heart thanks me.
But as I walked through most of the terminal, I completely forgot to look for the famous Northstar Crossing-area restroom where Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) was popped last June for lewd conduct. I can’t believe that slipped my mind.
Nevertheless here is a photo of the entrance to a pair of restrooms at MSP. I used one of the men’s stalls there. There seemed to be plenty of room for me and my luggage in the stall (it was quite deep) and even though I’m not a small guy (just ask the other two not-so-small guys on row 25 with me on the flight to Portland), I had a hard time imagining how anyone could possibly manage to get their foot into the next stall under standard operations.
There was a strand of toilet paper on the floor. I tend to be more on the side of fastidious than fussy; unlike Sen. Craig I decided I could stand leaving it there rather than touch someone else’s potentially used toilet paper, and left it for the cleanup crew.