South of St. Louis, Missouri there are no more locks, in order to reduce the effects of flooding this section of the river depends on levees. A levee is a natural or artificial slope/ wall parallel to the river which is meant to reduce the effects of rising water levels. This also means the towns are further from the river to accommodate for the flood plain.
Aaron and Jake paddled another 60 miles today. Staying hydrated is now the biggest concern. On Monday the only town they passed was Caruthersville, Missouri. Luckily they stopped to top off their water and a kind produce vendor gave them a watermelon and a couple of tomatoes. Tuesday they passed no towns but wisely rationed half of the watermelon from the day before. The next stop will be Memphis, Tennessee which is roughly 30 miles away. This means in the past 2 days they will have travelled over 100 miles in extremely hot and humid conditions with no chance to resupply their water.
Aaron and Jake will pass Memphis, Tennessee at some point today. Across the river from Memphis is the lesser known town of West Memphis, Arkansas. In addition to being the hometown of blues guitar legends Howlin’ Wolf and B.B. King, in the late 1980’s West Memphis found itself in a bad situation.
Making Good of a Bad Situation
“In 1988 a rare drought caused the Mississippi River to expose four and a half acres of forgotten shipwrecks near West Memphis, Arkansas. The State of Arkansas, the Arkansas Archeological Survey, and the Arkansas Archeological Society studied the area for two months, to get a rare glimpse into the age of wooden-hulled ships of the late 19th to early 20th centuries.” (Written by Aaron prior to departure)
Posted by Aaron’s dad
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