The Mississippi River

The phone had died while taking pictures in the cemetery, so our anthem song was lost to us.  We made our way down the gravel road and turned around at a bridge.  The boys had asked to make their way down to the stream. The muddy banks showed us that the stream could get much higher, I suspect it’s a run-off from the lake at the national park.  Ankle high today, it’s waters really didn’t hide any secrets, but the magic it promised drew the boys and I through the underbrush and up ditch banks to make our way down there.  Cuckle burrs covered our pants and socks, and there is a tiny shell in my car’s console.  

I warned the boys that their uncle was getting hungry, and when my sugar drops I get cranky.  The biggest boy knew the turn off from the gravel road to the top of the levee, and we drove on top of it to a city green space formed recently on the banks of the Mississippi River.  Every few years, the river rises high enough to slough the black top off the road, but the land formation remains.  It makes for a short but pretty drive, and the pier type walk way begs kids to run it’s length. 

The festival in town had left the remains of campers, most of whom had bagged their trash up in neat piles waiting for the city to come and clean up.  One camp fire was still smoldering on the banks and my nephews went to poke at it with sticks and throw whatever wood and paper they could find into it.

“Uncle’s getting hungry”, I told them.  I warned them in a joking way that when my sugar drops, I get cranky.  We played along in the bud for a bit, and made our way back up the hill.  Uncle (that would be me) took the nephew’s invitation to leave the stairs behind and just climb up the hill, which resulted in me covered in mud. But what did I expect after the rain fall from the night before?

Granny would soon have lunch ready, I was plenty hungry and covered in mud.  So the three boys made our way home, after a morning of raising hell and praising God.  We missed church that morning, but I’d like to think He was happy with the way we spent our morning, in His great outdoors.