A Trip Across The Bridge!!!

My day started today pretty early considering I am on vacation with Kylie. I was up early and met Debbi Swanson at the foot of the Centennial Bridge on the Rock Island side for our trip over to the Davenport Side!! When I asked my friends to send me different challenges for the month of October she wanted to know if I had ever walked over the bridge. I thought and thought again and in my 40 years of living here I had never walked over the bridge, drove over it thousands of times but never walked. So we set the day 2 weeks ago and our quest was today. I guess I never thought I needed to walk across. I am not a huge bridge fan in the first place. I am not afraid of heights but I am afraid of bridges falling. Did you see the news in Minnesota a year ago it happens. I don't like to be stopped undre bridges and don't even get me started about the Arsenal Bridge. Wooden bridges are my biggest no no's ...wood rots and thus isn't sturdy for a car or for a human for that matter. Walking up the incline of the bridge was a brisk, cool walk and my anxiety level had settled down by the middle of the bridge and besides semi's and the HUNGRY HOBO BUS that passed us 2 times before we made it to the other side , I was good. Those big autos made the bridge vibrate. I walked nearest to the rail as Deb was afraid of heights. I even stopped had my picture taken and looked over the side. I could see the vibrations of the bridge in the water near the post. That was a bit freaky.



Here we are at the top of the bridge with the background of Rock Island behind us. It really was a great way to get some exercise with a friend and a nice walk. I drove it and from where we parked it was 1.8 miles.

So while we were walking we were discussing why she suggested I do the bridge. She said that she wanted to do something that we both enjoyed all the while we could get some exercise. See Debbi is our school secretary. I met her 5 years ago when Kylie began
school at Denkmann. Kylie was hurt during recess on the playground. I got a phone call saying she had a bloody nose and all was well but she wanted me to know that she got hurt. I was a first time mom it was only a few months into the school year and I started to cry on the phone. Mrs. Swanson was the person who called. She said "Sweetie she is fine but I know you are a mom and if you want to come over to see her to make sure she was okay you can do that" How great for her to let me know it was okay to be worried and she offered me a choice to come see for myself. I arrived a few minutes later and she called for Kylie to come down and see me. After I checked Kylie out for myself she returned to her classroom. However, Mrs. Swanson said she totally understood why I was upset. Her being so comforting , made me feel secure that Kylie was being watched over at school when I couldn't be there watching her. All you mom's out there will agree with me when I say this is the best feeling ever. So since then Debbi and I have become really good friends. We enjoy sports (her husband is the athletic director at Rocky), we play trivia together with our husbands and we share a passion for mindless fun playing penny slots. Because she cared for my daughter and made a upset mom feel secure she will forever be an important person in my life. So because she suggested I walk over the bridge with her I was up for the challenge. It gave us 13 minutes of talk about whatever came to mind. I can't believe I had never done that in the past, never walked up to see the sights of the flooding along River Drive in Davenport, never walked up there to view fireworks or catch an inning at Modern Woodman Park.

The view from the bridge of our minor league park is fabulous. I do love watching games at this park, even though it is a farm league to the St. Louis Cardinals. It was cool to see pictures this year of the park with water surrounding it, however the park remained dry. I must admit walking down the incline of this bridge is much more enjoyable than walking up it at the base of Rock Island. Debbi and I reached the end of the walk off the bridge and took a moment and she snapped a picture of me on the Davenport side.



CONQUERED BY 40!! Can you tell I am laughing that I just spent my morning walking over a bridge that has been in my backyard for 40 years and I never did it until now!! I wonder why?

So my adventure with Debbi didn't end there. I mentioned above that one of my favorite mindless things to do is play penny slots. She is my partner in crime and loves them as much as I do. We even go out of town to have a girls day together to go play. So even though our intentions were to walk over the bridge to Davenport and be done our feet kept walking to the Rythm City Casino and we played our usual $20.00 and we were actually there much longer than we had expected. I was sitting on Deb's left side so of course she was winning (Are you laughing yet Deb?)

<----Debbi playing...me out of money so I am taking pictures!!! I do not take a ATM card or anything on the boat but my cash. Too Tempting!



Deb invited me out for Lunch her treat...thank gosh because again NO MONEY FOR LISA!!

We ate lunch free because she had coupons for the buffet on the boat. We spent another great afternoon together and while leaving we stopped and looked at the bridge we walked over and stopped a couple to ask them to take our picture with the bridge in the background.

Our whole day took much longer than we had anticipated as we were having too much fun together. We walked back to my car and as a gift from the Davenport Traffic division I received a parking ticket....another $15.00 down the toliet. I can never catch a break!!

Debbi....Thanks a million for your suggestions. You know how much you mean to me and how much I have enjoyed your friendship over these past few years. You make me laugh and I have so much fun with you. I can never thank you enough for being those loving arms and eyes watching over Kylie while she is at school. You know how much you mean to both of us. Thanks for making such a special day in my life before 40!!