I'm almost home

Florida is behind us ... Wisconsin is ahead. As we travel, my anticipation mounts. Keith spent 2 weeks with the church folks and has an idea what we're heading to .... but it's all still in my imagination.

As we travel north, we go a few extra miles but are able to avoid Chicago and all the nasty traffic (and road construction). We enter Wisconsin late at night and my only impression is wide open skies and millions of twinkling stars. We spend the night at a typical exit motel and when we arise, the sun is shining and the day is cool and crisp. We trek our way through the countryside, approaching Milwaukee. I've been there before, but it's been a while. I'm struck that the skyline is "short" -- compared to the skylines of Chicago or Dallas, the buildings are not as tall. But there are perks -- it's somehow seems more intimate, and you notice all the beautiful church spires, which are normally dwarfed by the towers around them. Modern buildings stand next to old world architecture. We pass the courthouse -- a stately, imposing building of stone and columns. An abandoned factory has been reclaimed as an upscale mall filled with shops and eateries. As we continue north, condos and housing developments give way to fields and patches of woods. The gently rolling prairie is a patchwork of greens and browns -- the greens, lush fields of alfalfa or winter wheat and the browns, fragrant earth, worked and ready for seed. The trees are still barren from months of winter, but some are enveloped in a misty swirl of palest moss green as new leaves begin to work their way toward the sun. Other trees are tipped with plump leaf buds, full and ready to burst with spring. The hillsides are dotted with black and white cows, feasting on new grass.

We pass through intersections with the modern version of country stores and a couple gas pumps. Across the roads are dealerships selling trucks or farm implements. In the middle of this rural bliss, we come upon a factory. A factory? What could they be making here? Then we see the signs -- we are, afterall, in Wisconsin -- the factory makes cheese!! I smile and we continue on.

The streams and ponds offer a refuge for ducks and other water fowl. There are big old white farm houses, slightly worn from decades of nurturing families. They are flanked by old red barns, standing strong on foundations of stone. We arrive at the building site -- I'm excited at the prospect of the church to be built. And for this summer, there is plenty of open land where I can grow a garden.

We have enjoyed our time in Florida and it was a good winter to have been in the south and I have to admit that I enjoy some of the benefits of living in an urban area. But the land is my element, and although I have never lived here before, I am almost home.