Rocio, Annie and the Mississippi River

Today was a beautiful day to go sightseeing, and I had promised Annie that I would take her somewhere new, exciting and fun all rolled into one. I don't think that she believed me. First, we had to journey 23.7 miles to a city called Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which is not far from where I live. We stopped on the Bill Emerson bridge to look down upon the swollen but Mighty Mississippi river. What a sight she is to see. Being on that bridge was even more scarier!! Annie kept on yelping, and running around. I had to calm her down. The traffic was busy and the bridge was swaying. We couldn't wait to get off! Annie did love the view. Well she did while the car was moving. Actually from where we were on the bridge, it looked as if the flood gates had been closed. The flood gates and walls are used to keep the river from coming into the town. A good thing that is was closed;because when we were down at the flood gates, water was seeping under the gates. That meant that the water was actually up to the flood gates. When you look up at the concrete flood wall, there are markings. These markings tell you some of the rivers past and how high the water has been in different years that it flooded. The river was at its highest in 1993. That really wasn't that long ago. I can remember that like it was yesterday, even though it wasn't. On the flood walls are beautiful and lively pictures that tell of Missouri's history. These compilation of pictures are called a mural. The name of these pictures are the Mississippi River Tales mural. All of the pictures are in chronological order. So that makes for an interesting history lesson. In front of these enormous pictures are plaques of the same exact picture but smaller. It also tells what that particular picture is about and how it correlates to Missouri's history. I had to make sure that I read each and every one to Annie. She had fun running from each picture. I had to constantly tell her not to drink the river water because it was not clean. We would go to eat lunch after we left. Way down at the other end of the flood wall are pictures of famous Missouri people. Missouri has such great history. There are also many other murals painted on pictures in downtown Cape Girardeau, Missouri. You can almost drive any where and find out bits and pieces of Missouri's history. This is a place worth visiting. I promise you will not be disappointed!!!