Fall Vacation: Day 1

This year's trip was a little bit bittersweet.

We have been coming to the western part of the state for eight years now and it was tough to see all the damage wrought by this year's recent flooding.

Things looked vastly different.

The banks of the Kickapoo and the Bad Axe rivers are carved out and much wider now. In some places both rivers have changed their course.

Soil and sand deposits have formed new berms and islands. Farm fields and yards are caked with mud or littered with stones and boulders. Roads and bridges have collected giant piles of downed trees.

Road crews and city workers and pretty much everyone with access to a backhoe have been very busy clearing out what they can; making new drainage ditches, scraping debris off roads and filling in sink holes and washed out roadways.  So, yes, while the destruction is still shockingly in evidence, the recovery is, as well.

And that gave us hope. For the people and the homes and the livelihoods ravaged. And also for our return next year. We will be eager to see how the passage of time and another Winter, Spring and Summer have worked to undo some of the stark scars.

So I will end this post with sunset pictures. And golden corn fields. And a little girl on a bike, flying down gravel roads surrounded by reflective river water pools.

Because there is always beauty to be found.