Old Man River . . .

We went for a nice, longish ride this morning as we had to deliver a 17th anniversary card to our son and his wife. I think I'm correct about the number and the date which is tomorrow? Didn't want to put it in the mail because I didn't want it squished. They are camping this weekend and it is good for Big Kiddo to get away when possible. Hopefully when he's away he has no cares but to relax and enjoy the common things that surround us but we rarely have time to appreciate: the sky, the animals, the warmth, the emptying of crap out of our skulls! The best part is getting rid of the junk in ourselves and having a sense  of sinking into our souls and not feeling our bodies. I like that feeling but it's hard work to get there. Now that doesn't seem right but it is hard for me to let go of my everyday pettiness. I do keep trying though.

After our delivery P&D's Pop drove me to the Mississippi River because I need that connection every once in awhile. It's easiest for us to go to St. Francisville. There wasn't much activity on the river that we could see but there were at least a dozen trucks with boat trailers parked near the ramp so I'm certain there were oodles of fishermen. We did see two men and a boy putting their boat back on their trailer and another man take off in his red kayak, going up the River. P&D's Pop has much better hearing than I. He told me there was a tug boat coming and I couldn't see it at all. He heard it way before I did and when I did hear it it was right in front of us pushing a large barge. I will try to put the video in my blog but I'm not sure exactly how to accomplish that. In any case I have a couple of still photos. I'm also going to try and put in the video of Paul Robeson singing Old Man River in 1936 in the movie, Showboat. It's a good song and probably tells the story of slavery better than Roots. Robeson has a deep base voice and that's probably my favorite timbre for a man. I'm not fond of most women's voices unless they're altos!

We drove home by going across the Audubon Bridge, through the little town of Ventress and down River Road on the west side of the Mississippi. I wish we could have driven on the levees themselves but alas we drove between the levees and the fields of sugar cane and soy. There are some homes along the road but not many. The farmers bale the hay on the levee which took me by surprise and I was tickled to see a man riding his horse along the bottom of the levee. What a great picture it would have made but we were rolling along at 50mph! Yes, it was a little fast for my taste as I was trying to see everything encircling the car but that is the limit and there was a truck with a trailer behind us so we really couldn't slow down too much. One car did race by us but the truck had a horse trailer and I doubt he would have taken a chance to go around us. There isn't much traffic but some of the curves in the river make the road curvy as all get out. Maybe when the cool weather arrives sometime in November we can take a walk on the levee. I would love that. I've only walked there about three times - once when we visited Grampa's Aunt in New Orleans back in April of 1980 or '81 then when we were in Baton Rouge visiting the museum and Old State House and last when we enjoyed going to the levees on the well preserved plantations off of River Road South.

We stopped at the The Local for lunch where I had their best sammich, Chicken Salad on a croissant and Grampa had a too chewy Ruben. I even broke down and drank a soft drink - root beer! Ate their home made potato chips too.I'm getting into such bad habits.

Quote:  No soul can preserve the bloom and delicacy of its existence without lonely musings and silent prayer, and the greatness of this necessity is in proportion to the greatness of evil.  ___Farrar