Family finds fun in chilly bridge walk

On a cold, gray Saturday, Joni and I bundled our daughters up in their winter coats and took a shuttle bus to Cape Girardeau's bridge dedication.

We joined thousands of others who skipped Christmas shopping for a chance to stand patiently in the cold for the opportunity to walk across the city's new Mississippi River bridge.

Free coffee and hot chocolate were a bonus. The real attraction was the chance to see the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge up close.

A friend of mine, who skipped the bridge dedication, said the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge is just a bridge. She couldn't understand why anyone would stand out in the freezing cold just to celebrate the opening of a bridge.

But there is more to it than that. The modern span is a monument, a testimony to Cape Girardeau's progress as a city.

St. Louis has the Arch. We have a shiny, new bridge.

Like many others, we skipped the speeches. It was the bridge walking we cared about. Bailey's Girl Scout troop was excited about the trek.

So there we were, Girl Scouts and Girl Scout parents milling around waiting for our marching orders.

We saw the Budweiser Clydesdale horses pulling their beer wagon and a parade of antique cars.

Several spectators were clad in Green Bay Packers coats. But that's not surprising. This was Packers weather.

We could have waited for the bicyclists and runners to do their thing and then we could have walked across the bridge on the south lanes. The Boy Scouts did just that.

But the Girl Scouts weren't that patient. We ended up walking on the north lanes of the bridge to Illinois, dodging fellow walkers on their way back.

By the time we were making our return trip across the bridge, the runners were starting their race on the south lanes of the bridge. One of the runners competed shirtless and in shorts, much to the amazement of many in our group of parents who couldn't imagine why the man didn't turn into a frozen sculpture.

Joni snapped a ton of digital photos of the girls. She took so many that one of Bailey's friends complained that she had worn out her smile. Countless others snapped photos too, intent on capturing history.

Becca and a friend walked well ahead of Bailey's troop and the safety of parental supervision. At one point, I spotted Becca standing on a concrete median in the center of the bridge. A broad smile graced her face. She looked like some satisfied explorer who had just claimed some territory for king and country.

There were souvenir stands lined up on the bridge. They did a brisk business.

That's the great thing about America. We love souvenirs.

Naturally our family had to buy a few trinkets including a small piece of bridge cable like the steel cable used to hold up the bridge deck.

Bailey was so proud of it she took the bridge cable to school to show her second-grade classmates. She also took a photo that clearly showed she had walked on the bridge.

You know it's a big deal when your 8-year-old wants to show off the souvenirs at school.

When all was said and done, this $100 million project ended up a topic of show and tell. In the world of second-graders, there's no higher praise.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer at the Southeast Missourian.