Deflection

Considering my career with the Iowa Department of Transportation, it seems like one way or the other I was always working on erosion projects either in the field or under development. After each flood, I was the first engineer in many areas looking at erosion. During our major floods, this would require examining a highway, including the bridges, to make sure that the highway could support the traffic. There was a highway opened on US 61 south of Folletts that was opens soon as the water was off the pavement. Within hours after it was open, as couple was driving on the gravel shoulder and their front left tire when down at the bridge abutment, since there was a huge void under the pavement. Even if I would have looked at this bridge before to traffic, I would have not been able to see the erosion, since there was too much water to look around the abutment. Often times, I was to evaluate the erosion damage and the corrective repairs to incorporate improvements in the up coming projects. But, as we were all were working on these projects, often times we would state that all of the erosion ends up in the Mississippi River Delta and does the farmers no good with they soil in the delta. Since we talked so much about the soil ending up in the delta, I had always thought that it would be nice to visit the delta and today I did.

Since I have been to beuatiful Lake Itasca many times to cross the half split log over the Mississippi River, I was not quite expecting to be that scenic, but it was worse than I expected. But, if I would have thought about it a little closer, this is where all of the sea going ships come in and out of the Mississippi River. There are ships dock on both sides of the river, with oil refineries, coal, and other goods being either off or on loaded. The whole trip was nothing but an industrial area.

Most of the homes reflect that they are owned by the dock workers. Once in a while there would be a nice home, but most of the nice home were in the bigger cities. It is hard to tell how many of the home were hit hard by hurricanes. Once I got off of the highway, I could see that some of the house had not been worked on since Katina. There are homes, from mobile homes to nice home, elevated to up to about 30 feet above the ground to be protected from the next big hurricane. However, there is a lot of trash laying around and industrial complexes make the area not a very scenic.

Since I got the end of the highway, I still was not where all of the soil erosion that I saw leave Iowa was deposited. I was probable more in the area of where the soil was deposited during the glacier melt down. By understand that Glacier Lake Superior was on the south side of Lake Superior, then it is easy to see a huge amount of soil erosion that was caused when the south side of the lake broke through and all of the water rapidly flowed to the present day Mississippi. I have in the location, in Wisconsin, where the shore gave away. The portion of the delta that I was on today was fairly level, expect of the levees in stalled by the Army Crop of Engineers.

When we would talk about the soil that ended up in the delta, we always thought that it would be fairly fertile, since it contained so much top soil, but I am not sure that this is what I found, since I found it to be more sandy and able to hold moisture. This can really be seen in the round sink holes that are formed in the pavement, usually in the wheel tracks that make a bump driving at a high speed limit. From what I could see, the highways would be in better shape if there was a drainable base with drain tile.

Since we expected fertile soil in the delta from the soil erosion, I was expecting to see more agriculture today, but I mostly saw industrial complexes. It seems like the open ground was growing twenty to thirty-foot high brush, grass up to ten feet, and really no trees. There was hardly any crops and there was hardly any cattle. Without much work, it seems like this ground could support cattle. However, with the major land use for industrial complexes, it seems like there is not much of a call for agriculture.

I could not believe that condition and huge number of RV parks that I saw today. The parks were nothing special, since they were basically gravel, with the trailers parked side by sides out in the open. I cannot imagine being in these trailers in the summer time. I would assume that it is expensive to stay in these parks, and I know that each park has their own community, but I do not see much enjoyment for myself to say in these campgrounds.

This must be the slow time for vacationers in the area. There are so many places closed, and I had a hard time finding a place to buy a sandwich today. There is capacity everywhere for more people to be on vacation, but I cannot imagine anyone on vacation here in the summer, with the paralyzing heat.

Was the day a disappointing? This is a had question to answer, but today did raise a few questions in my mind and that is always good. I stopped to see Fort Jackson that was used by the Confederates to hold the Union from using the Mississippi River. With the given location of the fort, it is hard to see it being used in the Civil War, so I need to study Fort Jackson. Therefore, as long as today made me think about different things, it was a good trip for me.

Roger