From a poster in the dining room this morning I’m reminded that the Mighty Mississippi is born in a lake in north western Minnesota, wanders through the city of Bemidji, into Lake Bemidji and out…. on a long south eastward crawl through some of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes towards Minneapolis (dividing Minneapolis and St Paul) to emerge and head south and be what we all know: the Mighty Mississippi!!!
The Army Corps of Engineers has been influential in turning the weakling, shallow and scattered river into an organized channel for carrying logs and grain out of the north down south. There are a series of locks and dams that help big barges float in the correct direction down to the Port of New Orleans. Army Corps also occasionally stops the Missississippi from meandering and eating up towns like Natchez (a few years ago we viewed a whole street and houses wiped out and gone in a big Mississippi meander through Natchez)Today we’ll drive to the headwaters park south of Bemidji and picnic! Yesterday got cold… In the 50s, and it rained. Brrrrrr. I told the priest after Mass, "I’m from Miami and I’m freezing!" (delicate flower!) God bless you!