Some of my fondest memories of the Mississippi River come from the activity that goes on around it.  From the pleasure boating to the barges that move their cargo up and down the river.  Even now, twenty plus years later, the activity goes on, just in different forms.  A couple of things I would like to point out, the boat in the second picture caught my eye because it looked like an older boat.  But as we got closer, we realized it was a modern boat with a retro look.  I really like the windshield that looked like it came from the 1960's Batmobile.  One thing that has really grown in popularity over the years is camping out on the shores of the river.  The first and second picture in the second row show a couple large groups of boaters staking a claim on the river.

The water level doesn't seem like it has changed much since we were here a month ago or so.  The islands are still under water, debris caught on the channel markers and buoys, and even the dam had its rollers pulled out of the water.  Something to take note in the last picture, the doors at the base of the concrete structures are normally well above the water line.  One thing that I thought was really strange is that we didn't see many sandbars or sandy shores.  All of those seemed to be under water.

While people have been putting cabins along the edge of the river for many years, I have always found it interesting to see the different styles of cabins that people build.  They used to be smaller cabins that were not too expensive to build or replace, but now, they seemed to be large weekend and vacation homes.  In the third picture of the second row, you can even see that someone has built a condo.  The last picture shows how high the water has risen along the banks.  The sandbar that the car is sitting on usually sits quite a bit higher out of the water.  When I first saw it, it almost looked as if the car was sitting on top of the water.

You may not recognize the locations in the first two photos, but you may have been there.  That is the Effigy Mounds National Park.  The first picture shows the visitors' center along the highway, and the second is Fire Point Trail along the bluff.  The third picture shows what the barges look like when they are being loaded.  Apparently this one was not completed before the weekend.  If you have ever wondered how some of the larger boats get into the water, well, the fourth picture shows the piece of equipment that takes care of that.  The last pictures of the series are of a hike we took along the ridge at Pikes Peak.  There is a trail that leads to town that we have always wanted to follow.  It's only a couple of miles as the crow flies, and the trail is marked as 3.5 miles to the point; however, when we tried it, we made it just under halfway, and that took an hour.  Next time, we are planning on a day trip.