River World Field Trip, Alton, IL to Lake Charles, LA and back on a working towboat, 1956
October 24, 2015April 21, Saturday
Gold and clear sunrise, mile 687.5 at 6 a.m. The river looks like high tide in Maine, smooth and boiling quietly in spots, with that over-full, surging look of high tide. Walked two miles after breakfast. Cat Island towhead must be all of 15 years old from the size of the willows, m. 704.9 workings of pileated woodpecker. Barges of logs up to shore at several points, ready to be taken off to the paper mill, probably.
The wind riffles the river and changes it endlessly. Cow Island Bend, the DIXIE CHALLENGE, downbound, fast. A vast sea of sparkle margined with big sandbars of Cow Island Bend, Sand banks, sheer and yellow. Dewberries in bloom. Bank sand is very fine, almost like powder, and often grey-brown. Wrecked revetment, asphalt top four inches thick, yet strewn about and eaten out.
Two common terns riding down, the river on drift. And more boils and ripples and waves (see diagram in notebook). There was a newer look of spring in the trees, some not far out, willows yellow. A green meadow with big spring trees just coming out.
The VALLEY TRANSPORTER; SAM HOUSTON, WILLIAM CLARK.
Huge drift, massive and galloping — drift seldom floats, it wallows and bounds and surges.
And then Memphis ahead, as always the miracle of coming upon civilization after miles of uninhabited banks arid sandbars.
The LADY REE in Brandywine Chute, a few monarchs going north.
Took on groceries, laundry, and mail — letters from Herman, Larry, and Hazel,
Above Memphis, cotton fields to right, buildings on stilts, maybe cotton barns. The Chickasaw bluffs behind. It was cool after supper after a hot afternoon, with more wind.
supper, round steak, baked potatoes, okra, peas, combination salad, quite good, radishes, peaches, beans, gravy,
dinner, rib roast …. blackberry pie.
April 22. Sunday
Cold, grey, and windy out of the north. Mile 825. at 6 a.m. above BarfieId Bend. More cotton shacks and other grim dwellings facing the river, and concrete levees. Down to borrow a needle from Mrs. T., who was making a spice cake, got some fruit for my room, and patched up my heel which I cut on a steel stair tread yesterday.
Ferry between Cottonwood Point, Ark, and Heloise, Tenn. The river gray with whitecaps kicking up from a south wind, but the sun was out by nine. 10 a.m., Caruthersville, Missouri, flocks of ducks, river bright and very choppy with big waves.
dinner, fried chicken, salad, asparagus, radishes, limas, mashed potatoes, biscuits, gravy, lemon pie.
The MERIWETHER LEWIS with a barge stove in horribly, all chewed and mangled.
Out on the barges, A bald eagle in a big sycamore. Parulas and a water thrush singing. Approaching New Madrid Bend.
By 3:30, however, dark clouds were coming up fast and a sudden cold wind whipped the river. The chair on my porch flew across and slammed into the railing. The dirty laundry which Mr. Todd had left, while he heard a bit of the ball game in the pilothouse, flew, too. I did, also, my hair down and whipping, as I rescued chair and laundry from going immediately into the river. The wind was so strong I could hardly shove against it, or get the door closed once I got it open. Wind whipped spray, sand flew.
We were at Point Pleasant 883.5 the narrow place in the neck of New Madrid Bend. The storm transformed the river into something that looked like New York harbor. It was dim far ahead, and no shores showed. Dust and flying sand filled the air. The radar was started at 4:15 and visibility was cut to nothing. Spray and waves were beating over the barges, leaping twenty feet high in front. Water splashed into the galley windows. We were riding the waves, and boat heaved and tugged, the barges wet with high-flung spray, not rain. The river was like a wild grey sea with big white waves. Some downbound boats with empty barges tied up, because high-ridding barges could have snapped their lashings in that wind and in those waves, but we continued and pretty soon the wind eased, visibility grew better, and, around the bend, the river smoothed out magically.
supper — ham, potato pancakes, broccoli, beets, hot rolls, slaw, spice cake, and ice cream.