The Mississippi River, some photos, part 1

Just the first few pictures. I'll show more later after I download those I have on the camera.

First impression of the Mississippi River 275 kilometers (172 miles) north of the delta: it is much narrower than I expected. Here it is about 800 metres (half a mile) wide and has steep banks.

There is a lot of traffic on it, tug boats pushing large containers, up to 24 by my count. I was told that in fact there is a channel which was dug to allow for boat traffic all year round. I am not sure if it is true since I was also told several times that the river here was a mile wide which it clearly isn't (I drove across it several times, and walked across it four times).

There is a two mile walk along the river with regular benches, and in places even swing benches. One is just by the campground and last night when it was still warm but the wind was bringing in the dark clouds and the cooler temperatures, I was sitting on one of the swing-benches enjoying the moment and I had that thought: "you know you are doing something right in your life when you can here crickets and frogs chirping in the evening." I thought that the crickets are telling you that you are somewhere warm with some wilderness, and the frogs are telling you that there is water near. If you can add to this a swing bench by some river ...in this case the Mississippi... things are really pretty good.