Road Trip to Wisconsin

My daughter and I took a little road-trip last Wednesday to visit my folks in Wisconsin.  It's a little over 2 hours away, so we had a great day full of chatting!  

We stopped for a minute in the town of Siren, Wisconsin on the way home to snap a couple of pictures.  First, I chuckle every time I see the fire station.  Siren Fire Department has just always been funny to me.

We also remembered the tornado that hit this small town hard in 2001.  Siren is a small town of about 800 people, and 240 buildings were destroyed.  That pretty much devastated the whole town. 

This boat was found wrapped around this bird house pole, and stays as a monument to that storm.  Crazy to see this every time we go through town.

It is tornado season here - always a bit scarier when one sees the damage first-hand, even though we see it on TV.  It's incredible how violent nature can be, as we know from the recent tornadoes that ravaged Oklahoma.  Typically, we have pretty good warning when a tornado is possible or even spotted.  This particular tornado hit the town of Siren when it's only warning siren was out of commission due to a lightning strike, so the police drove around warning everyone.

I'm not even sure where this boat came from, but it's a pretty good distance from the lake.  The town has been rebuilt and looks great again, but this memorial remains a sight right on the way into town. 

My heart goes out to the people of the Oklahoma towns that were hit so hard by recent tornadoes.  I hope the devastation they are facing now is only a memory very soon.