The Mighty Mississippi

Thursday afternoon, as we were trying to outrun a pretty good storm, our family arrived in Baton Rouge a few hours earlier than we had planned. We took the opportunity to walk along the Mississippi River.

There's something about that river. I could sit and watch it for a while. Maybe that's because my parents and grandparents would take my sister and me to the Mississippi River (in New Orleans) when we were children. We would eat beignets at Cafe du Monde, and then walk over the levee and sit on the steps of the river. We sat on those steps on sunny days, rainy days, cold windy days, and hot summer days.

I remember seeing a variety of countries listed on the sides of the barges. These enormous boats come around a turn in the river carrying anything and everything, and so often the mass of the boat can't even be seen as it lies flat, just barely sticking out of the water.

I have heard stories that as a teenager/young man, my grandfather would swim across the Mississippi River. Were those stories true? Maybe someone in my family can verify that...

The River. I think it's in my blood.