Flooded Out On The 4th of July

[67avion]

One of our favorite campgrounds is Devil's Backbone Park in Grand Tower, Illinois. clickIt is right on the Mississippi River with beautiful views of the Father of Waters and the passing tow boats. Tower Rock which on the Missouri side was visited and climbed by the Lewis and Clark expedition. It is a place of great beauty and powerful history. Its also one of our favorite places to camp. Its almost unknown to people outside the area.





Tower Rock is in the distance at sunrise from our TC's backdoor

Unfortunately, we have been receiving torrents of rain. Last month was a record and this month is looking like another one. We were standing at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio last week, again a place visited by Lewis and Clark and the sky looked ominous.




We soon learned that Devil's Backbone was under water - so was our 4th of July. It is inundated.




You can see some of the hook-ups in the middle of the water. The place we usually stay is way to the right...and that is deeply underwater.

Thats the way of the Mississippi. It doesn't flow at our convenience though we've tried to tame it for hundreds of years.

We'll get back there soon we hope. In the meantime I invite anyone traveling mid USA near St. Louis (It's south a couple of hours) or on US 57 through Cairo, Illinois (It's north an hour or so), to make a stop at this beautiful location..when its dry. You'll be glad you did.

[67avion]

Thanks, Blue Heavan. Without you I wouldn't have this camper. You gave me solid advice and it means a lot.

[My_Blue_Heaven]

Nice pics, D.

[67avion]

Folks thanks for posting about our part of the world. As you know, Jane and I love traveling out West. We enjoy the vast expanses and the opportunity to boondock on top of Muley Point. But, we love this part of the world as well. It appears that it is lesser known to the TC fraternity.

I put together a trip report along the Ohio last year and decided not to post it.....thinking that no one would be interested. Now, I'm thinking of reviving it. Seems like a lot of folks would like to enjoy Missouri, Arkansas and Southern Illinois.

And its true that our travels in our TC tend to focus on history or the man-made landscape of farms, dams, mounds and other structures. What is known as the "social" landscape.

I can't get enough of thinking about Lewis and Clark ascending Tower Rock on the Mississippi as their Corps of Discovery traveled through. It's in their Journal.



And we love camping along the Ohio and discovering the remnants of mussel shell fishermen. They boiled out the shells and punched holes for buttons of mother of pearl until the 1930s. Plastic wiped them out in the button business. The piles are still there - you just have to stumble over them.



And visiting Shawneetown, Illinois, which is practically a ghost town today as a result of the Ohio River flood of 1937. Still standing is the bank built in the 1839 when Shawneetown was as big as Chicago.



Yep, I could write a trip report and probably should. I'll wait till the storms are past.

[trailgranny50]

Nice to know a place to stop over when we wend or way to Michigan for family reunions from Oklahoma. Biggest issues we've had in the trek thru Illinois and Indiana has been semi truck traffic when following the main highways trying to get from point A to point B in the shortest time. Last trip we left early and took roads less traveled. It hasn't exactly been the driest of years here either. Rain dumping boulders on interstates, parks closed, bridges gone, lives lost. Been an about face in the weather from last few years of drought to current. Raining again as I write. Flood warnings everywhere. Just dealing with it. We'll be winning in August when it gets hot and dry I suppose. Colorado beckoning but paces we usually go have been getting abnormal amount of rain as well.

[nycsteve]

I drove through Ill. once to visit my son who lives outside of St Louis on the Ill. side of the border. I told him he lived in hell, jokingly. I was in the TC and from about 5 hours out the external temperature display was ticking up at what seemed a degree a minute. The skies where an ominous grey/black. The FM radio kept being interrupted by the Emergency Broadcast Network warning of possible tornados and large hail. Turns out all the action ,while close by, missed us. I stayed for maybe 3 days and experienced a really brutal heatwave. Im very heat tolerant but this was ridiculously hot. You were almost leaving footprints in the asphalt. Hence the living in hell joke. Due to the weather I didn't see the area at its best , but we did enjoy ourselves. Both my son and his wife, both NY transplants ,are very happy there. I wish I had more time to explore the area,it looks to be worth the time. But I had a date in South Dakota and had to move on.
Hope your flooding there ends soon. Water is very powerful and destructive when its not where you want it. We had Sandy a few years ago,not fun.

[joerg68]

Beautiful pictures, minus the flood.

But the rivers were there long before us, and they will remain until long after we are gone... It is good to see Farmerjon's road was repaired so quickly.

Wishing you all luck with the flooding. Water is worse than fire, as the saying goes.

[The_Mad_Norsky]

Looks like a real nice park, and would give me a chance to see part of the country I've missed.

Recall the floods of 2011 along the Missouri River in my area. Huge snowpack run-off that year, plus torrential rains in May just messed up everyone's plans.

Everyone more specifically being the Corps of Engineers, who managed water levels at all the main stream Missouri River dams north of me here in SE South Dakota.

Well ALL the dams went to over full stage, cause the spring releases had been way too low to hold all the water that came through. Now that's six dams in total, including three of the largest earth filled dams in the world (Ft. Peck, Garrison and Oahe).

So property flooded along the Missouri for the first time since the early 1950's. It was a huge mess.

[Jaxom]

Many nice memories of southern IL. My Mother was born in Goreville, IL.
Fun Times at Ferne Clyffe State Park. Aunts, Uncles & Cousins in and around Marion & Creal Springs.

[Farmerjon]

67avion wrote:

Farmerjon wrote:
that looks like a terrific camping area.
When we are heading towards NC or Ga We make our 1st stop at Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park even though it isn't a full days
drive.It's only 270 miles.
We get a kick out of watching the tug boats with their barges. WOW what power.
And has a bonus we get to avoid crossing the river at Cairo and sharing the bridges with the semis.
As far as tne flooding. Yeah it is a pain, Yesterday the short road we live on nad both bridges washed away. one at each end of road.We had no way out.

I've never stayed at Tom Sawyer's RV. I think its near Memphis? And don't leave us hanging. What happened when your road was cut at both ends? Fire up a rock crawling jeep? A boat?

Its one of the pleasures of this part of the world where a lot of us are prepared for most anything. Because "most anything" keeps happening.

Apropos Tom Sawyer: “…nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.” – Mark Twain

Yes it is in Memphis,Ark A nice place to stop over.
One end of the road was repaired before noon, It is a concrete bridge with dirt ramps built up to it and both ends of the bridge were gone.They just had to go down stream and fetch the gravel back. At our end the culvert was completely washed away.I mean it was taken down stream and is gone.
For our end they brought in loads of small boulders 1 to 2 ft diameter and a new Tin Horn and piled boulders for rip wrap on both sides of the road. Best job ever.They had it done by noon today.
around 5pm we had more rain and the new bridge is getting tested.
We are expecting heavy rains tonight and we are supposed to go pick up a bull tomorrow. That's a real big maybe as to if we will have a road to drive out on.
Both bridges were washed out last Thursday. They repaired them and they washed out again Monday and now here we go again.
The water doing it's damage.



Here are pictures of the road when it was almost washed out. that's the culvert that has washed away. It was found a 1/4 mile downstream.




These are pictures of the new road after a burst of rain just hours after they repaired the road and there is water already starting to flow over the top

[67avion]

Would be great if they could pipe some of that water to states that need it.

Wayne

There actually have been schemes to dam the Mississippi and build canals to the West. But, No one wants to give up their water even if they're getting too much of it.

D

[Cougarnewbie]

I live south of Chicago. Our cost of living overall is just about the same as neighboring states. We have more, and better services. We have our problems, but, it is a great state to base our travels.

[Reddog1]

Would be great if they could pipe some of that water to states that need it.

Wayne

[Bedlam]

One of our diversions to miss flooding on the Missouri River in 2011 was to head east to Hannibal, MO before heading south. In 2013, the Missouri still had some flooding but not as bad as the Mississippi. I doubt you will ever consistently tame the rivers - Look at the flooding that still happens in Europe and they have been trying to manage their waterways before North America was even discovered.

[67avion]

Farmerjon wrote:
that looks like a terrific camping area.
When we are heading towards NC or Ga We make our 1st stop at Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River RV Park even though it isn't a full days
drive.It's only 270 miles.
We get a kick out of watching the tug boats with their barges. WOW what power.
And has a bonus we get to avoid crossing the river at Cairo and sharing the bridges with the semis.
As far as tne flooding. Yeah it is a pain, Yesterday the short road we live on nad both bridges washed away. one at each end of road.We had no way out.

I've never stayed at Tom Sawyer's RV. I think its near Memphis? And don't leave us hanging. What happened when your road was cut at both ends? Fire up a rock crawling jeep? A boat?

Its one of the pleasures of this part of the world where a lot of us are prepared for most anything. Because "most anything" keeps happening.

Apropos Tom Sawyer: “…nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.” – Mark Twain