As I write, my desk is strewn with maps. There are bits and pieces of the DeLorme Wisconsin Atlas & Gazetteer—some pages have fallen out from being opened so often—and other maps of Wisconsin counties, regions, and towns that are Post-it noted and color-coded to correspond with stories.
Not that this is unusual. I have maps of Wisconsin by my side almost every hour of the working day. It’s one of the things I love about this job, that I can sit at my desk tracing a finger along a back road hundreds of miles away. I can visualize—even smell—the landscape and savor the memory of exploring.
For this issue, I’ve been smelling apple stands and envisioning sweeps of blazing foliage. I’ve wandered Bob Rashid’s vivid route through cranberry country (p. 40). I’ve sat in the passenger seat alongside Mary Bergin for more than 20 glorious miles in Vernon and Monroe counties (p. 39). And I’ve pedaled with Steve Johnson into valleys of eye-popping color (p. 43).
If people occasionally wonder where my mind has wandered off to, I just tell them I’m doing my job.
In this case, the job was Wisconsin Trails’ fall travel guide. This year, we’re giving you an assortment—think of it as a mix-and-match approach to planning your getaway. Fall drives, which have become somewhat of a Trails tradition, are here. But this year, we’ve added bicycle routes, a list of can’t-miss harvest festivals, and hot spots for snapping foliage photos.
My maps, by the way, ensure that you’ll visit many different parts of the state as you read each issue. If some areas don’t get flagged by a Post-it this month, you can be sure we have plans for future issues.
Of course, this technique doesn’t always work. How do you find just one point in the state for Ed Thompson? As Steven Walters’ profile explains (p. 44), the Tomah mayor, Tee Pee proprietor, and onetime gubernatorial candidate has become enough of a statewide figure that it feels wrong to limit my highlighter to Monroe County.
The same applies—but in an unexpected way—to Jeanette Hurt’s story about using Shakespeare as a form of inmate therapy (p. 32). The idea sounds odd at first. But as Hurt takes us along to observe a year of rehearsals, the idea of using the Bard’s universal themes as a way to work out personal ones seems inspired. As we were preparing the magazine for print, news came that funding had been pulled from the project. The performance of Julius Casear you’ll read about was the prison troupe’s last.
Some stories can’t quite be mapped.
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