Last week in New Orleans, I began to get restless to leave. Jazz Fest was over. Several of my good friends – Felix, Jake and Richie – all were leaving for their own next chapters. Those periods between chapters have always been challenging. I have always looked to make the goodbyes short and get on to the next chapter as quickly as possible. As we caravanned out of New Orleans yesterday (in separate cars so we can leave onewith Annette’s parents), I made a silent promise to myself that I would figure out how to leave New Orleans for a few months every summer. I have lived in New Orleans since 1997. It wasn’t until 2008 that I spent a complete summer there. After three years of working with only a few weeks vacation, I am ready to return to that model. With heavy rains and ample snowmelt further North, the Mississippi River has hit a record high. It has been flooding communities all across the MidWest and the “crest” has been winding its way slowly to New Orleans. In anticipation, several of the spillways in Louisiana have been opened. These are overflow valves of sort to help keep the river from overflowing its banks in places where they don’t want it to (i.e. heavily populated areas like New Orleans). There are now four spillways open in Louisiana, including the Bonnet Carre spillway. This spillway is just west of the city and primarily swampland with a raised Interstate 10 cutting through it. As we crossed the spillway, I watched with amazement. This swamp of shallow still water was flowing like a stream in the Rockies as the snow melts out to Lake Ponchartrain. There was white water! And for a moment, I regretted not taking a canoe out to explore this phenomenon before I left the area.
After about three hours, I had earned myself a nice driver’s tan (when your left arm gets sun from hanging it out the window). By the sixth hour, we were comfortably drinking beer and talking about plans for the North Mississippi Hill Country Blues Picnic with Annette’s parents at Foxfire Ranch. It has been nine months since we had been there. We had a full weekend of blues with Duwayne Burnside, Jimbo Mathus and some other great folks from that area. We ate well, even got to help host a wedding on Saturday. And I was more useful helping out around the Ranch than usual, given that usually I spend my weekends there sleeping and getting ready for work again on Monday. We also hatched up a bit of a destination weekend. We are inviting all of our friends to come join us for the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic June 24th-26th at Foxfire Ranch (http://northmississippihillcountrypicnic.blogspot.com/).
Jimbo Mathus at Foxfire
On Tuesday morning, we followed the river north through Memphis to Missouri. After a brief pit stop to visit Annette's (recently graduated!) brother Sammie, we followed the river north to Missouri. The flooding was incredible. When we crossed from Memphis to Arkansas, the river, normally about a half mile wide, was close to four miles wide. Several of the exits were blocked off due to the flooding. One stretch of I-55 near Cape Girardeau had a foot of water on the shoulder contained by sand bags.
Sandbags and flooded fields along I-55.
Sandbags and flooded fields along I-55.
No comments:
Post a Comment