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;font-size:13px">Labor Day and the "Other" Bridge Walk in Frankenmuth
Column for September 11, 2006
<%FloatImg "images/flinn/ricola.jpg", "All together now, RICOLA!", "right", "flinn.asp"%> Labor Day is Summer's last hurrah and part of Michigan's Labor Day tradition is to walk on one of Michigan's landmark bridges. You may be thinking of the Mackinac Bridge. No, that's too far away. The much handier traditional bridge walk on Labor Day took place at Zehnder's Holz-Brücke which is the covered wooden bridge built in 1979. This 239 foot long bridge was constructed along the Cass River and put in place in the old-world way in January 1980–using two oxen to pull the bridge into position over 12 days.

<%FloatImg "images/flinn/zehnder_eliot_lee.jpg", "Business leader Bill Zehnder, Sonny Eliot and accordion legend Linda Lee", "left", "flinn.asp"%> As Governor Jennifer Granholm led the "other" bridge walk up north, she appointed as her ambassador to the event Detroit weatherman and TV legend Sonny Eliot who still does afternoon drive time weather on WWJ Newsradio 950. I left Flint to take the 30 minute drive on Clio Road, which becomes Gera Road in Saginaw County, then Main Street in Frankenmuth, I turned right on Covered Bridge Lane and found a parking spot. I then walked to the staging area on the other side of the Cass River so I crossed the covered bridge on the sidewalk side and went to the sign up tent to fill out the form and receive the bridge walk literature.

<%FloatImg "images/flinn/walk2.jpg", "Walking into the bridge", "right", "flinn.asp"%> On the platform where the speeches and announcements took place, I saw local accordion legend Linda Lee. On the P.A. system, Sonny Eliot was heard talking about the bridge walk on WWJ radio. Then he was introduced and he gave his humorous as usual speech. Frankenmuth business leader Bill Zehnder handed Sonny a proclamation from the governor for his work in leading the bridge walk. A surprise was announced when it was said that Sonny's old World War II uniform was on display in Michigan's Military Museum nd he was invited to see it. Then we were instructed to line up for the formal bridge walk which started at noon. A whistle and a large alphorn (think Ricola!) were blown to start the walk. We were given special lyrics to sing which were sung to the tune of "The Happy Wanderer":

<%FloatImg "images/flinn/walk1.jpg", "Waiting for the signal to start walking.", "left", "flinn.asp"%> <%FloatImg "images/flinn/walk3.jpg", "From here I can see
the other side", "right", ""%> I now will walk the wooden bridge on this Labor Day
And when I make it across I'll be on the other side
Val-de-ri, Val-de-ra, Va-de-ri, Val-de-ra-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Val-de-ri, Val-de-ra, I'll be on the other side
From here I can see the other side
It doesn't look too far away
And when we've marched across then we will have a good time!
Val-de-ri, Val-de-ra, Va-de-ri, Val-de-ra-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Val-de-ri, Val-de-ra, then we will have a good time.

<%FloatImg "images/flinn/walk5.jpg", "The walkers emerge from the bridge", "right", "flinn.asp"%> Upon reaching the other side, we walked to the right towards Fischer Platz which is the Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn's Outdoor Biergarten where more speeches took place and a concert was held led by Linda Lee, along with Eddie Schiefer and the Frankentrost Band performing <%FloatImg "images/flinn/walk6.jpg", "Linda Lee entertains the audience at Fischer Platz", "left", "flinn.asp"%> traditional songs in both German and English. When I got tired of the music, I walked around Frankenmuth taking in the sights of this famous "tourist trap" with most of its buildings constructed as if we were in an old German Bavarian town. The place I most wanted to go to was the Frankenmuth Historical Museum, but it was closed on Labor Day for some reason while most of the tourist oriented businesses were open on that day.

Before leaving Frankenmuth, I filled up the gas tank at $2.529 a gallon which was the cheapest gas price I saw on the trip. The following day, the lowest local price in Flint was $2.419 a gallon. On the way home, I visited Ken's Diner to take pictures of the adjacent temporary Ken's Carhop Drive-In Theater which is in front of the abandoned go-kart track which is one of the last remaining reminders of the old Pine Ridge Amusement Park which is now the Pine Ridge RV Campground. All in all, it was a fun trip.

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