Please read this...This week, how 'bout two thousand words...?

This week, you get two thousand words, more or less. Clean and simple. Well, only if you happen to believe that a picture is worth a thousand words.

As you may have heard, we've been having another one of our once every 500 years or so floods. I think this year's flood event would the second once every 500 years flood that we've had in the last two years.

One day last week, during a break in the rain, yours truly motored down to the Mississippi River bottom lands in western Union County. (Actually, I went back again on Saturday, but that's another story.)

My plan was to take a driveabout, which is kind of like a walkabout, except that it happens in a motor vehicle of some sort, through the Union County State Fish and Wildlife Area (pretty much known as the "refuge" in our neck of the very wet woods), which is located in suburban Ware. 

After making a left turn from Illinois Route 146, I was able to travel a short distance on Refuge Drive. Perhaps I should have made more of a note of the "Road Closed" sign which was on display near the intersection of the state highway and the refuge road.

That's 'cause it didn't take long to find water on the road. And birds. Lots of birds. The image made for a nice photo opportunity. 

So did the snake which paused while meandering through the water along Refuge Drive. The snake made a stop alongside the road, eye-balled the photographer for a short time and then continued its journey.

One more image which I spotted while motoring through the bottom lands may have been an indication of how much water we've had lately. I'm pretty sure that I spotted a road-killed beaver along Illinois Route 3. 

Oh, by the way, I saw my buddy Chuck the Groundhog on Monday. He seemed to be enjoying the warm, dry weather.