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A Day Down River
It's been a week since I've blogged, and I can tell that the viewers in Garden City, Colby, Tulsa and Florida are getting antsy. So here is proof we are up and around. Today we drove about 110 miles south of home to Cape Girardeau, a college town on the Mississippi River across from Cairo, Ill. After stowing our gear, we took off for the Trail of Tears State Park, which commemorates the removal of the Cherokees from Georgia to Oklahoma. And many of them crossed the Mississippi very near this spot in the winter of 1838.
We saw an enormous variety of trees and birds in the park, but the highlight was the Mississippi River overlook. A local farmer was at the same spot, looking at the river which is 4 feet over flood (but falling) and trying to estimate when he might be able to get to his farmland on the Illinois side. His land is clear, but the road is under water. We enjoyed talking to him and he offered to take our picture.
This is one of many breath taking views of the river we saw today. This is looking north from the overlook in Trail of Tears State Park, about 10 miles north of Cape Girardeau. This is the clearest, bluest sky we have seen in a long time.
After the winter, the many days inside fighting respiratory ailments, and Norm's recovery period from the cataract surgery, this trip was a breath of fresh air, and then some. We'll long treasure this weekend and this view of the Mighty Miss looking south. The turbulence of the water can be seen even from this height. I'm here to attend a conference of Disciples Women that I coordinated. After I checked in at the host church today, and saw that all is ready for tomorrow's meeting, I realized I had done all I can do. It felt odd, after a week of stress, to need to do Nothing. So instead of doing Nothing, we went to visit our heartland river at the farthest point south we have been on it. It's a lot wider than it was at its origin in Lake Itasca , Minn., when we waded across it, back in 2000!
It's been a week since I've blogged, and I can tell that the viewers in Garden City, Colby, Tulsa and Florida are getting antsy. So here is proof we are up and around. Today we drove about 110 miles south of home to Cape Girardeau, a college town on the Mississippi River across from Cairo, Ill. After stowing our gear, we took off for the Trail of Tears State Park, which commemorates the removal of the Cherokees from Georgia to Oklahoma. And many of them crossed the Mississippi very near this spot in the winter of 1838.
We saw an enormous variety of trees and birds in the park, but the highlight was the Mississippi River overlook. A local farmer was at the same spot, looking at the river which is 4 feet over flood (but falling) and trying to estimate when he might be able to get to his farmland on the Illinois side. His land is clear, but the road is under water. We enjoyed talking to him and he offered to take our picture.
This is one of many breath taking views of the river we saw today. This is looking north from the overlook in Trail of Tears State Park, about 10 miles north of Cape Girardeau. This is the clearest, bluest sky we have seen in a long time.
After the winter, the many days inside fighting respiratory ailments, and Norm's recovery period from the cataract surgery, this trip was a breath of fresh air, and then some. We'll long treasure this weekend and this view of the Mighty Miss looking south. The turbulence of the water can be seen even from this height. I'm here to attend a conference of Disciples Women that I coordinated. After I checked in at the host church today, and saw that all is ready for tomorrow's meeting, I realized I had done all I can do. It felt odd, after a week of stress, to need to do Nothing. So instead of doing Nothing, we went to visit our heartland river at the farthest point south we have been on it. It's a lot wider than it was at its origin in Lake Itasca , Minn., when we waded across it, back in 2000!
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