A Wednesday Walk Along the Mississippi River

My #wednesdaywalk share, as inspired by @tattoodjay.

The walk last Wednesday night started off innocently enough. With warm weather and fog in the area, I thought it would be worth checking out the Cass Street Bridge from the Mississippi River bank. As I walked along a river walk, I noticed an abandoned bicycle leaning against a building…with a red light flashing on the back of it. There is a sizable homeless contingent in this area but were recently forced to move due to concerns about rising spring river levels. I assumed that bike belonged to that community, and kept walking.

When I came back, the bike was attended to. Slumped next to it was a scruffy man…in what appeared to be on fentanyl high. Lifeless and not moving, I felt uneasy but didn’t want to get in this individual’s space. I walked down a small brick path to get this photo of the bridge:

Then I noticed near this place was this individual’s living area. I looked back at him, and again, he was slumped over on a bench. So, on high alert and not feeling overly comfortable standing next to the freezing waters of the river, I decided to walk toward the bridge.

As I walked toward, I heard a child’s voice yelling from atop the bridge. I kept walking toward a stairway, and suddenly a slim, shorter woman started running toward me. “Great, Dustin…only you can find your way into this situation…” The woman is yelling “Cricket! Cricket!,’ but as she gets within 5 feet of me, she looks at me and goes “you’re not Cricket.” So I just wave a small wave and put my head down…and she comes running up to me. Already on edge, I flinched, not expecting what was to happen. She looks at me and goes “what did you say to me?’ I responded with “I said ‘hello’”. She continues to stare at me and then sticks her hand up in front of me to give me a high five…”great job, Dustin” I think and tap her hand. Fortunately, she then leaves.

Woooooo….

So with that all said, here were some of the photos from that “exciting” #wednesdaywalk from last week, lol.

I’m not sure they were worth it. When I walked back to the river area, I checked on the individual slumped over…and he was moving. So, fortunately, he lived to see another day. Hey, you never know what you’ll get with a Wisconsin walk on a Wednesday night. I honestly haven’t returned at night since.

Anyway, next week I’ll get back into more positive stuff to share! And hopefully a bit less stressful. Thanks for checking out my #wednesdaywalk share!