Old Man River

On Saturday November 5th, 2010 Carol and I were on our 50th birthday trip. We went down to Winona, Minnesota. Our first full day there we went shopping for some things we needed. Carol needed yellow material. There was no Michael's or JoAnn's to be found on the GPS for Winona area... but hey, there was a CINDERELLA craft supply shop. When we found the only purple building on Mankato street we knew we were there! We walked in and could smell the faint smell of a cow barn? Everything you would have ever needed was there (except of course the color of yellow that Carol was looking for). We did meet up with the lady who owned the shop. She has lived in Winona for 50 years and has owned the "CINDERELLA" for 25 years. She said it is more of a hobby now -giving her something to do. WEll, if you could have seen her sweet face and heard her voice you would have found a few things to buy quick also. We couldn't walk out of there with out dropping a little cash on her hobby farm! So, we made a purchase and headed to downtown Winona. While shopping downtown Winona we found a little flower shop called Nola's. We stopped outside and took a picture of her sign and then went in to see the shop and meet Ms. Nola! She was a friendly lady telling me all about her name. Her mom is 91 years old and still as smart as a tack. She named her 4 daughters all names that went together: Nola Faye, Debrah Kay (I can't remember the rest I need to contact her so I can get them down as it was so clever!). She said she also had a mean brother named Charles Noel. As we were talking with her we told her what we were doing and she said "Oh! you girls need to go over to Lacrosse, I call it my little LA!, it is only about 30 miles down the road and then you cross the bridge and all the wonderful shops are right there!" ......Well, Carol and I could not miss out on this! If Nola Faye thought it was something we needed to do - we were going to do it!!! ......On our way to Lacrosse Wisconsin... we discovered a bridge - surely that couldn't be the bridge she was talking about... we couldn't go over that! It was about 17 miles long and hanging straight over the Mighty Mississippi River!
River (what in the world was holding all those miles of bridge up?) ......The bridge we saw was to our LEFT, we drove ahead a little and saw another smaller bridge - hey, maybe we could handle that one... but, what if there was more? We pulled into a gas station to our RIGHT to go in and ask ... "if we want to get Lacrosse, Wisconsin do we need to cross over a bridge?"
..."Yes, there is one bridge (she pointed to the small bridge going over a small body of water) and then you will go over another bridge and there it is." ......oh, that simple ?? "Is it the same size as the "blue bridge" we saw a ways back?"
..."Yes, it goes over the same river, it is the same size." ......"well, I don't think we want to risk our lives just to say we went to Lacrosse, Wisconsin!"
..."It's a new bridge, I don't think you would be "risking your life!" ......"well, you see my friend is driving and when she looks over the edges into that mighty Mississippi from over here she looses her scruples, her legs paralyze, and she has a hot flash..."
..."It used to be a metal bridge with grates all across it and when I was a little girl driving over that bridge with my parents I was scared, but I really think you will be fine." Smiling she tells me this, getting her money from the ATM machine.
......I go out to the jeep - tell Carol what I have found out.
We make a big turn and head back to Winona, Minnesota.
With the mighty Mississippi to our RIGHT ...and the gas station in our rear view mirror, ......singing "Old man river, that ole man river, we just keep rolling, we keep on rolling along."