To quote from a LIttle House Book---"Sometimes my wandering foot gets to itchin'." Happens to us all. Ramble away. Maybe venture into the delta might go best via National Geographic channel first... ?

I have never seen a map of Methuselah's hair. Hmmm.


Supportive vibes while you ramble out the restless

Good ramble. I love travelling.

good stuff arfie

I map out a trip daily, whether I ever go on it or not. The mind wanders....Glad how you share how yours does, arfie.

I've done that Mississippi delta trip. Wonderful. I've also done the Parana'-Paraguay-Uruguay-River Plate trip, too--another delta down where I'm from.

What is it about deltas? Something about rivers meeting the sea. Like how I hope my single individual life opens up into the great beyond some day, I don't know.

Arfie, Like my therapist told me when I was thinking about going to Vegas, it is good to have something to plan and look forward to. Nothing wrong with starting some research and planning what you want to see while there, what hotels are good, what attractions, etc. Start planning, set a date, and go have fun. I think it is a really good things for you as it feeds you natural curiosity.

Did I reference, "Methuselah's hair?" My bad. Those names from when people counted their lives backward (BC) always confuse me. I meant Medusa, the Greek chick with the snaky hair, not Noah's grandpappy. . . Oh well. . . It oughta take more than a slipped pronoun to emasculate a 969 year old dude. . .

Yea, the river knot I am researching this week is where the Ouchita, Tensas and Little Rivers all come together just a few miles from where they run into the Red and Mississippi Rivers. I am having fantasies that it might be a good place to take my introduction to river navigation courses.

arfie, love your sense of adventure, whether rambling or on the homestead x

Arfie I love how everyone is so different and how your mind works. It sure dose take you a lot of places mine doesn't. I want to go across the mesa's in a hot air balloon. I want to go down kayak down the rapids where I live. Well see how we are all dreaming about different journeys that ultimately end us in the same place. It a little bit of the mysteries of life.

Arfie, no worries.

Where I grew up---literally, on our farm---you could dump out a pail of water *here* and it would eventually find its way to the Atlantic via the St. Lawrence River. Walk over to the other side and dump out a pail of water *there* and it meandered down to the Mississippi and out to the Gulf of Mexico. My fascination is in springs, apparently.... Hmmm...

Actually, Methuselah's hair works fine. I doubt they had combs and styling products, after all, and he probably didn't turn anyone to stone with a look....

Is this all a metaphor for the need to untangle the knotted interactions of the rivers in our lives? Or am I just high on chocolate?

I ramble the ridge and ponder... This way: Mississippi. That way: St. Lawrence.

Metaphor and physics are far from mutually exclusive. . .

My current river fantasy is literal. The 5 rivers I called by name here are only the West Bank of the Mississippi River Valley. A stunning portion of North America's water dumps into the river confluences which sit atop the Mississippi Delta, along with elements as varied as the desert iron deposits to the sub-arctic snow melts. Listing them all is either a massive log or metaphor. Since I am not in a documentational mood, "Medusa's Hair" is my metaphor for it this week. Forgive me, Methuselah, if I am still confusing your name with that freaky Greek chick. Me and names. . .

Within that river fantasy dwell the "Three Sisters" Two hydrogen and one oxygen. H2O. The three sisters have been breaking apart and coming back together since ??? the dawn of time??? Now there are some adventure stories I like to listen to. . . They include tales of being thrown in a sub-arctic farm yard and ending up in the West Texas gypsum quarry and. . . and. . . and. . .

My under grad college roommate is now the national scientist in charge of monitoring the waters of the USA for the Department of the Interior. He's headquartered in Minneapolis, where the headwaters of the Mississippi flow.

This past September I got to go along as his interpreter to a scientific conference on water in Brazil. That's when we took side trips to follow those South America rivers I described in my earlier post, the Parana-Paraguay-Uruguay-RIver Plate progression south. My hometown of Montevideo sits on the River Plate where it is the widest river mouth in the world as it meets the South Atlantic.

There I got to show my best friend where, should I got first, I would like my ashes to be spread by the banks of that river. Like I said, where the river meets the sea.

For all my wanders through the fresh water sheds (saltwater allergy) on three continents, I still know precious little about navigating those watersheds by boat. In the current fantasy, I am in search of a "River Rat" to introduce me to the art.