Flood plains of the Mississippi

We drove from Illinois to Missouri along the Mississippi river road.

We stopped at the Devil's Backbone, a wooded sandstone outcropping that rises above the flood plain.

The water you see above is flood water from the Mississippi.  We spent a few hours exploring the area, driving around the flooded fields.  The flooded farmland makes for an oddly beautiful sight.  Daniel said it was like driving on a lake.  We saw many homes that were vulnerable to the water, some that were inundated.  We tried to egress from a different route than our entry point, but every way we turned led to a dead end into an impassable road.  This entire huge area has one road in and out.  If it floods many families will be completely isolated.  What we couldn't figure out is why the homes are mostly ranch homes instead of two story homes with the living space all on the second floor above flood level.  Since we have see so many homes that are flooded we feel there is an opportunity to develop some truly wonderful flood plain specific architecture.  How about a house on stilts with a porch all around, lots of glass and a deep overhang?  You could catch a nice breeze on the second floor and maybe get above those nasty biting flies.

Here is the view from the levee.  The water is all over cropland.

The flooded fields have attracted many great blue herons and egrets.  There must be tadpoles, catfish and what all to keep them there.  I am sure the fish will provide great fertilizer when the water dries up.  If I had a flooded field I would stock it with small fish for that reason.  We left some wild trumpet vine (Campsis radicans)  that I had cut from the banks of the Mississippi the day before as a roadside memorial to this beautiful bird that is now, sadly, roadkill.

Here is a home site -- all that is left is the shed and a dish antenna.  One advantage to having amobile home in this area.  You just pick up and leave.

It's an amazing river. Can't imagine how the Army Corps of Engineers thought they could control it.  It goes where it wants.

Tale of Two Cities, a bad decision and a good outcome

Today we really wanted to go kayaking.  We drove so much the last few days we thought it would be fun to kayak out of Cairo Illinois (pronounced Kay-row.)  Cairo is located where the Ohio River merges with the Mississippi River.  The waters from the Ohio are blue and the water from the Mississippi are brown.  After Cairo, they run separate for a few miles with a visible demarkation.  We had this idea it would be fun to kayak on the line between blue and brown.  And we found a kayak launch mentioned on the internet.  We had time, so on the way to Cairo we decided to stop and look around Paducah, KY.  It's a really lovely town right on the Tennessee River.  It just oozes civic pride and love.  The waterfront area was developed in the 1800's and it quite charming.

View of Paducah KY from river front

We left a little bouquet on the main street.

Apparently they have a history of flooding so they built a huge wall to protect the town.  Well instead of just putting up an ugly wall, they made it a showpiece.  It has murals depicting scenes in the towns history and plaques on the ground explaining the scene.  There are floodlights for night viewing.  It may sound corny, but if you have to have a big ugly wall this is the way to do it.  

They didn't just show old history.  They had some more recent events depicted as well.  Like this:

This break in the wall shows where a gate can be raised.

The town has a very artsy feel and a nice vibe.  

After lunch we drove to Cairo and the contrast was unbelievable.  Cairo has the Mississippi on one side of town and the Ohio on the other,  It has seen some tough times.  Probably a combination of a bad economy and repeated flooding.  The center of the main commercial street is blocked off because there are sinkholes.   Lots of abandoned buildings.  There are nice areas too, but still...

We tried to get to the boat launch in a park area at the entrance to town.  The park and boat launch were closed due to flooding of the Mississippi.  And, the bridge from Cairo that crosses the Mississippi and goes into Missouri was closed.  A worker at the park told us that Illinois and Missouri share expenses for bridge maintenance and because Illinois is broke they can't pay their share and Missouri won't foot the whole bill.  So we couldn't get to the other side.  Desperate for river access we drove a long way around to get to the Missouri side and found other access points denied.  We decided to drive this non-road under the bridge and see what we could find.  It was really interesting to see the fast flowing Mississippi from this vantage point.  We collected a number of specimens but did not launch the kayaks in part due to the heat.   

The Mississippi:

Daniel was hoping this was a swamp honey locust, but no. 

Ok, now for the really fun part.  After collecting we still wanted to get to a proper river access point.  After leaving the collecting site under the closed bridge we drove around and saw signs directing us to a boat launch.  We drove through beautiful flood plains.  Really the fields in the area are something to see. As we drove we may have made a wrong turn, who knows, and we ended up on a sand levee.  As close as it was to the Mississippi we had to get closer.  Bad decision.  We got so stuck in epic sand with no place to turn around.  The field hands were clearing out for the day and we were pretty well stranded.  I quickly accepted that we might be sleeping on the levee with the heat and the flies (did I mention they BITE?)  We were up shit creek, but we had a paddle and Daniel did some shoveling with it.  All in vain.  Just as we were discussing options (who to call) a monster truck appeared driven by my hero, a gracious and kind man who was happy to pull us out as long as we learned our lesson and walked next time.  Which we did.  After the rescue, we walked back to the river and went skinny-dipping.  It was divine.

I took this photo just as the truck lurched to a stop in the sand:

Nice, huh.  What would you do?

If you are lucky this shows up

I got the impression he had done this before.  

A quick tow to the parking area...

..and we walked right back to see the river...and on the way found some Persicaria amphibia:

...totally grubby and the river called, Daniel went in first, then me.

I decided to add this one.  Nothing anyone who knows me hasn't seen.  I've been feeling kind of glum about turning XO next month and this shot makes me feel like I still got the juice (if not the estrogen)

All this because we wanted river access in Cairo.  We think there is a tourism opportunity around ecotourism and kayakers.  And Cairo could teach people about the life cycle of a river town.

We drove on after Cairo and passed flooded towns and fields.  The river will have its way.  The weather got weird and the heat broke.  We checked into a motel with a flooded parking lot.  Tired and happy.