Exterior view of our home in early spring of 2016.

Growing up in the outskirts of Burlington, Wisconsin I spent a large part of my childhood riding bumpy buses to and from school. I was born in Burlington but grew up 9 miles outside of the small town in the country. However, I still identified with Burlington as my hometown. By the time I was in high school I was ready to get out and live somewhere else and see the world.

My college years took me northwest to the University of Wisconsin to River Falls. A surprisingly similiar city in population. I moved to student teach in north St. Paul Minnesota and was desperately searching for employment in the middle of January 2013. With few teaching jobs open in the middle of the school year I faced few options. Just when I thought hope was lost I got a call from Racine, Wisconsin to teach elementary art to the end of the term. Of all the places in the state I had come back to the county I grew up in. Fortunately my parents took me back to live in their basement. Following my long term substitute position, I landed a full time job teaching Art in Silver Lake, Wisconsin. It was a strange adjustment coming back, in just 5 years I could see subtle changes in the landscape. Development along the sides of the roads I used to ride through the county on the bumpy school bus. I had come full circle by chance with a new outlook on this place.

Fast forward to 2015. I was still living in my parents basement, now with my fiance. I am thankful for their patience for so many years, but it was time to leave the nest. In the fall we began searching for a place to live, and I could not think of a better place in southeast Wisconsin than Burlington. The small town had added walking and biking paths. The downtown had reinvented itself following the economic crisis of 2008. There was even a cozy coffee house with live music, a perfect place to catch a bite to eat, meet up with friends or study. It’s a place I would have dreamed of as an outlet to hangout in high school.

We found the perfect house: two bedroom, two bath, and on a hill looking overlooking the Fox River. Fortunately I knew the owners and had been friends with their kids in middle school. The previous owners were headed west to Colorado so it was a quick close, and by Halloween weekend we moved into our perfect home. Living back in a city took some adjustments. It was difficult to sleep amongst the sounds of cars and trains. But now I find their sounds soothing. We were full scale adulting and I felt reintroduced to Burlington.

Considering myself a foodie I re-explored old restaurants and tried new ones. It was fun to show off this little city to my wife who agreed to make the transition without really knowing this place. Being a sweet tooth she loves the almost daily smell of Chocolate in the wind coming from the Nestle Chocolate plant. This gives the nickname Chocolate City USA to Burlington, Wisconsin. Adrian's Custard is by far the best ice cream you can get and worth the trip by itself. My wife can list off a handful of flavors to try; they are all good. We love breakfast foods and not far from our house is the perfect spot. You will know you found it when you spot the wooden mushroom outside the entrance. The Town Fryer has little booths, a sunroom and the perfect round counter. It’s an old school cash only place with plenty of breakfast options only open in the morning to early afternoon. The staff celebrated a waitresses birthday recently and even gave customers pieces of her cake on the house. On Tuesday we developed a routine of going to Super Tacos Moy a little place that has the perfect tacos. If you are in the mood for burgers there's only one place: “Freds,” which claims the world's best. If you need something fried for a side I highly suggest the onion rings or cheese curds. Across the street my wife likes the craft beer selection at the newly opened Rugan's. Further down Pine St. you can find Napoli Italian Restaurant, a favorite of city-celebrity former NFL quarterback Tony Romo. I had the opportunity growing up to attend his first few football camps and even playing basketball with him. Next to that is Molitor Pet Clinic, a small town vet clinic my mom works at. I also grew up there petting many animals throughout the years.

Fall, winter and spring flew by in our first year in Burlington, and in June we were married. In mid July we returned from our honeymoon. My wife loves the weekly farmers market outside the library on weekdays and we spent the remainder of the sunny day walking the many paths throughout town. A couple days later life changed quite rapidly.

The torrential rains came down from overhead on July 12th 2017. I woke up at 3am in the morning to the river rising into our front yard. It rained the next few hours and flooding raised the Fox River level into the record books. 12.9 inches of rain in one day. As I got up Wednesday morning, my wife and I watched helplessly as the river rose. It was pure shock and doubted for the first couple hours that the water could not rise to our house. Eventually it got our driveway, we moved the cars to higher water. We got our neighbors attention so she could move her car the water was rising that quickly. The reality started to creep in: it was going to make it into our home. The same home we had bought less than a year ago, re-painted almost every room, and made our own. Grabbing whatever valuables we could, we moved them to higher ground. The electric company came by and told us to turn the power breakers off. News choppers flew overhead, the bridges were closed as the water neared the record height of 16.5 feet. The normal level is about 4 feet. The national guard trucks rolled in, stopping traffic over the bridges as the water crested. We walked by neighbors, seeing the houses and and roads underwater. News crews came in loads, some filming us and our house. I don’t think we could even comprehend what was happening, and there was nothing we could do. I just took pictures and watched the water rise. By late afternoon it started to come inside. Hearing warnings that the small damn nearby might break we got warnings from the National Guard to evacuate. We packed up our important personal belongings, including our pet cat, and headed back to my parents basement. A curfew was put in place that night for the city but we returned the following day to see the damage.

As I opened the door and headed downstairs the smell of raw sewage was overwhelming.The river now spilled over into the lower level of our bi level home. As I made my way outside, I watched as a three foot long carp swam in what was my driveway. The water receded slowly. After a few days we again had access to the driveway. We called in a restoration crew. Working overtime they gutted our downstairs. If I had to estimate the damage I would say it was close to 40K. The feeling I had was that our world was crashing, but for everyone else life was going on. Through the disaster we tried to keep our humor through the emotional up and downs. We had many family members and friends come out and help us clean up. To that I am so thankful. The whole process taught me how little material goods actually mean. It might have even influenced me to be more of minimalist and less of hoarder.

For those wondering if insurance helped they did not… Our agent actually never returned our calls, the power was out for four days... and retired. I guess the flooding was too much. Nothing was covered when we finally made our claim. FEMA fell through, as did the politicians’ promises that the disaster wouldn't be forgotten for the people. Before I knew it the news had moved on to other disasters and was now focused on the flooding in Houston. Maybe this was a 200 year flood, maybe this is climate change and will occur more frequently, time will tell. However there was strong sense of community in Burlington that came together for flood relief for victims. My wife and I filed for flood relief and were able to get help that assisted us with our recovery. We were able to move back in our home a week later.

Sun room finished post flood in September of 2017

By August I caught up with friends during Tall Tales a small music festival featuring bands from around the country. July seemed like a bad dream, but it was real. Even when I look a pictures it seems fake. As fall passed and winter came I watched a Bald Eagle on the ice over the Fox river as the snow came down. This was why we moved here, for days like this. As spring comes and the rebirth of green, so will the rains. Having new perspectives, I try to let my worries move on like the river.