When I went to Coe, I liked to take long bike rides along the river from Ellis Park to the Czech Village, through the art ghetto, through downtown sculptures in the middle of the night. I liked the house boats, the old neighborhoods, the factories. It made me feel connected to where I grew up, and to the people I grew up with, much more than my college ever did.
The summer after I graduated, the Midwest flooded. While I was dealing with the mess in Reedsburg, Cedar Rapids got hit a hundred times worse. All the places I frequented were gone, inundated with water. I saw the place I got my nose piercing on CNN, sitting in at least three feet of water. The place I knew and lived for almost four years was no longer there. I haven't been back since.
The bridge above connected a factory to the rest of the railroad. It was destroyed during the flood when the house boats I loved so much washed downstream and collected against the bridge, eventually collapsing it. Even though it was taken on my crappy cell phone, the picture itself is like a ghost to me. I haven't been back to see the space where it used to be, so it's weird to think that it's no longer there, that the places I used to know no longer exist.
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