There’s a heck of a lot of news going on right now, but it’s still a summer Friday, which means that scads of Minnesotans will be jumping in their cars and heading to the north woods. So, in the spirit of a holiday weekend, Roadguy offers you this poem by alert reader and occasional contributor Kitty:

AN ODE TO DRIVING TO THE LAKE

Don’t leave on a Friday afternoon,
You’ll join the commuter hell.
But once you get north past the outlet malls,
You can settle in for a spell.

There’s the exit you know for the ice cream,
The one your kids recognize.
There’s Tobie’s or Morey’s or Treasure City,
Or maybe you just stop for fries.

Then the trees turn to tamarack, pine and birch,
And the air gets tangy and sweet.
You roll down the windows and slow down a bit,
Your travels are nearly complete.

Lac Qui Parle, Woman Lake, Tabor Lake, Bass,
Snake River, Gull Lake and Sand,
Kabekona, Minnewawa, Pokegama, Fish Trap,
All jewels of water and land.

Now the car rolls into the whispering trees,
And you hear the dock calling, Come forth!
You ignore the mosquitoes and take in a breath
of the tonic that is Up North.

(Photos are from Roadguy’s lake excursions this summer.)

Kitty, by the way, just had a baby on Wednesday and was still riding her bike to work last week, and she invites you to submit your own poetry about trekking north. If you’ve got a free moment before heading out, please add a haiku, limerick or sonnet to the comments below. And happy Labor Day to all.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 6:05 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.