Witnessing the mighty Mississippi River flooding Wabasha, MN

After 10 days of travel and just over 1,300 miles, we arrived at Big River Resort in Wabasha, MN. The kickoff location for our exciting adventure through the northern Rocky Mountains and on into Colorado. This is a familiar place, as we were here just about 10 months ago. Last year, this was as far west as we ventured. We had spent time visiting the midwestern states of Ohio and Missouri, and by the time we had gotten to Wabasha, Minnesota, it was time to start heading east. This trip is different!  Very different.  When we leave after a week, we will just be starting our western adventure. 

Wabasha is the first small town that we decided to return to for a second visit. There’s a lot to be said about visiting a place for a second time and already being familiar with the area. I guess you could say that the other reason we picked Wabasha is so that we could visit with friends, Kristine & Bryan. Having camping friends means that schedules can be coordinated to connect again, and that’s just what happened. Just like last year, we had another couple to hang out with, go bowling, and socialize over a number of dinners. 

Kristine & Bryan are native Minnesotans, so at their suggestion we all went to visit a town about 30-miles north called Red Wing. The home of Red Wing Footwear.  For over 100 years, Red Wing boots have been built with construction techniques that transform premium materials into supremely durable boots and shoes. Their flagship store showcased a great variety of shoes, as well as being a museum that shared the Red Wing Footwear history.  We did do some shopping in the basement in the mark-down discount section, but to be honest, neither Judy nor Steven requires work footwear anymore.  We did get our picture with Red Wing’s most iconic (and oversized) work boot.

Using Wabasha as a home base we roamed around a good amount, traveling north to Red Wing, but also heading 30-miles south to visit the town of Winona.  Winona is the home of the Minnesota Marine Art Museum.  An expansive museum offering classic & contemporary marine-themed paintings & sculpture, plus a garden. The museum is located on the banks of the Mississippi River and boasts six galleries that showcase meaningful art experiences that explore our relationship with water.  I’m not sure what I expected to see when I first walked into the museum, but I did not expect to find such a moving exhibit by a New York born and Berlin-based photographer Mustafah Abdulaziz. His exhibit called “Water” captures the compelling narrative of climate change's profound impact on humanity.  If you ever have a chance to see pictures or exhibitions by Mustafah Abdulaziz, in a gallery setting, I encourage you to do so.

Much of what we concern ourselves with lately has been the weather.  And not all the weather, just the weather that affects our activities. Which is a bit strange because our zip code seems to change every week by about 300 miles. That being said, we never checked on the weather conditions in Wabasha, and maybe we should have. Wabasha is on the mighty Mississippi River and that river is flooding in Minnesota. Dams across the state are at capacity, some have over-run the tops, and some of the locks which allow barge traffic to negotiate the change in water elevations, have been left in the open position. Docks have floated away, and towns along the river are flooded. Wabasha was no exception. We were shocked to see the river riding so high and fast.  Most mornings we walked with Kristine and Bryan through town, as we monitored the slow rise of the river.  This is a picture of Judy and me sitting in an oversized Adirondack chair which pays tribute to the “Grumpy Old Men” movie (portions of which were filmed in Wabasha).  This picture was taken on Sunday, June 23, on our morning walk through a small park just out of the center of town. Note the river in the background.

Just one week later, on June 30^th, Kristine forwarded the following picture of that same Adirondack chair. The oversized chair is partial submerged by the flooding river.

WOW is all I can say.  I’ve never experienced a river as large as the Mississippi flooding before.  Streets have been sandbagged, power has been shut off to affected areas, and sewer systems have been sealed. And it’s not just the Mississippi that is flooding. We tried to take a hike through the Zumbro State Wildlife Park and the area surrounding the Zumbro River. The Zumbro River is a tributary of the Mississippi, and the hiking trails were just 14 miles away in the adjacent town of Kellogg (no relation to the cereal manufacturer). First, we tried the north parking fields. The road was closed due to the flooding of the river.  We were determined, and had the time, so we drove 21-miles around the park to the south side entrance, only to be stymied as well. The entirety of the over 1,000-acre sanctuary was inaccessible due to flooding. That’s what we call, when we’re sight-seeing, “a swing and a miss, with good effort.”

Ironically, our last day in Wabasha was clear, mild, and brilliantly sunny, and we had hoped that the comfortable and dry conditions would continue after our departure, with the promise of relieving the flooding across the Mississippi River. Ultimately, we found out from our friends that the river continued to rise and crested a few days after our departure.  We left Wabasha over the Wabasha-Nelson Bridge driving north-east to the Apostle Islands in the state of Wisconsin.  It was time to touch the water of Lake Superior. Lake Superior is the 5^th and last of the Great Lakes we have visited in the last year.  Find out what was so superior about our visit to Bayfield, WI and the Apostle Islands when you read my next blog post as we tell… the Rest of the Story.