On the Mississippi River (October 12)

During the night, we passed out of the mouth of the Ohio River, entering the Mississippi River. We could feel the boat fighting the current as AMERICA turned upstream towards Cape Girardeau, Missouri. 

We were awakened by horn blasts close by our (port) side - three longs and a short. A moment's thought suggested it was not a maritime sequence for an onboard emergency or warning that another vessel was bearing down on us. With further consciousness came the realization that it was a freight train. Looking out our veranda door, it apparently was running on the other side of the town's flood wall; it's closed flood wall.

AMERICA backed and filled in front of the wall for a while, then turned downriver and left Cape Girardeau astern. 

ice shards

When I stepped out on our balcony to see what was going on, my bare feet immediately noticed that the deck was really cold. Returning to warmth and checking my cellphone, the local temperature was in the low 30's. There were visual clues like ice crystals and smoke on the water. I noticed that a pool of water had ice shards on it. Other than being nippy, it was a beautiful morning on the Mississippi.

Eventually, the captain got on the PA system to tell us how much the water had risen in the two weeks since the boat was last there. He stated that this morning there had been no place to land safely. 

With the loss of another port, and this time with no prior notice, whether the whole ballet in front of the wall was a charade was cause for considerable speculation. How was it possible that the captain did not know in advance the water had risen to a level where the flood wall had been sealed end-to-end along the area where the boat was attempting to land?

A working theory was that the captain and American Cruise Line knew but chose to pretend otherwise because they had no viable alternative for what to do with us. The day before they had canceled St. Louis and New Madrid, so after Cape Girardeau our next port call would be Memphis, a port call they had already lengthened. By taking us to Cape Girardeau, they used up a chunk of time while they (pretended to) negotiate to get us more time in Memphis.

Deciding to focus on the positive, and with the temperature warming, we enjoyed a nice day on the water.

note the flooding beyond the river bank

About noon we arrived at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, the former relatively clear and the other heavily silt-laden. The tremendous volume of water carried by each river resulted in a distinct convergence line that only gradually blended to a homogeneous brown color.

green line: Ohio River above & Mississippi River below 

A bit below the the confluence we passed the Fort Jefferson Memorial Cross.

Throughout the day we saw a testament to the strength of the current; buoys torn from their anchor lying on the shore and buoys still in place being dragged partially and sometimes completely underwater. I watched a red buoy get dragged so far under that it did not even leave a ripple-wake on the surface.

bend in the river that was 20-miles
around to cover two miles on land 

when it is too far a drive to a bridge across

a squadron (a/k/a pod or scoop) of pelicans

In the evening, the cruise director announced with (feigned) glee that we would be in Memphis for three days starting tomorrow evening. A geek who shall remain nameless had a Navionics automatic course-plotting app on his phone that had been indicating since Cape Girardeau that we might get there even sooner unless AMERICA slowed down.