Ok, it’s not technically an ode but this year (2020) marks the 20th year I’ve traveled to Hayward to vacation on Round Lake with my wife and kids, in-laws and nieces. 20 years of traversing the 6+ hour journey on I-90 from the Chicago area, up highway 53 through Eau Claire where we connect with US-63. Crossing the Namekagon at Trego where a group of sun-ripened tubers can be seen wrapping up their trip down the river and up through Earl and its population of 12 (seriously, it’s so small, there’s no population data available).

Then, like a ray of sweet sunshine peaking through a crack in the clouds after endless days of rain, it comes into view. A bridge!

By most measures, we begin our week long vacation – both physically and mentally – when we pull out of the driveway 6 hours earlier in Chicago. But it’s only now, at this bridge, that we cut the remaining strings on our every day and surrender ourselves to full-on vacation mode.

For the uninitiated, this isn’t just ANY bridge. It’s the bridge that hosts the Superior Railway line running north to Duluth’s Taconite Yards and Lake Superior’s docks. Then south to Chicago, Lake Michigan and beyond. More importantly it’s the bridge that punctuates the beginning (and end) of every trip to Hayward for our family. Not because of its historical significance (there is none). Or its beautiful, rusted steel patina or the lush, assorted flora and fauna (a pine tree and some miscellaneous weeds). But rather because every year it greets us like an old friend we’ve been apart from for far too long, opening its arms as we approach for a warm embrace and then gestures us onward while saying, “Your vacation begins now. And don’t forget… Spooner Blows!”.