I am writing today from Vermont, the beautiful Green Mountain State. I’m here putting together the final itinerary for next year’s Arizona Highways Fall Color and Covered Bridges tour.   Normally, the big story this time of year here are the spectacular fall leaves, a panoply of color.  This year, however, the big story is the recovery from the devastating flooding of Tropical Storm Irene.  The floods, the worst in almost 100 years turned normally tranquil streams into raging torrents taking out homes and roads in many parts of the southern and central portions of Vermont.  What is amazing is how fast repairs are being made.  Though many bridges are still out, most roads have now been rebuilt.  Highway 100, the main north-south route along the East side of the Green Mountains was almost entirely destroyed in many places, and is now rebuilt and open again.  The damage to the trees though will take a season to heal.  Many of the trees were stripped bare of their leaves by the ferocious winds, while those that were not received more rain than their leaves could process and  have instead molted.  As a result, what we have seen so far is generally very muted color.  Nevertheless, the state is beautiful and there are pockets of color that tease and make us believe that  next year will bring back the beauty that we all think of as autumn in Vermont.