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200
“Hey Joe, yesterday, I walked across the Mississippi
(River)!”
“What? Are you kidding me?” wrote:
July 2006, posted: 060907
See pictures
The mighty
Mississippi River starts its long journey (2,552 miles = 4,107 km*)
to the Gulf of Mexico by overflowing
Lake Itasca in
northwestern Minnesota. Starting with the edge of Lake Itasca, before it hits
the Gulf, the Mississippi flows through several states and cities such as
Minneapolis / St. Paul / Red Wing / Winona, Minnesota, La Crosse,
Wisconsin, Muscatine, Iowa, Quincy, Illinois, Hannibal (Mark
Twain
+
’s hometown) /
St. Louise, Missouri, Osceola, Arkansas, Memphis, Tennessee,
Vicksburg, Mississippi, and New Orleans, Louisiana**.
The name, “Itasca” is made up by combining parts of two Latin words, "verITAS
CAput," which means "true head."*** This lake name with Latin words is unusual
since most lakes are named after Native American words. Anyway, as the name
describes,
Lake Itasca is the headwaters of the
Mississippi (river). As seen in the pic, this person
is on his way to cross the
Mississippi River
(easily). He can brag about this crossing later by stating, “I crossed the
Mississippi River!” If you see this pic, it’s true, but very funny, isn’t it?
J
Lake Itasca is
viewed in the background. This pic was shot at Itasca State Park, MN**** at dusk
because fewer visitors are around in the evening than during the day.
* Ummm… As I guessed, the length of the Mississippi is much longer than Japan.
Roughly speaking, the length from the Northern tip of Hokkaido to the Southern
tip of Kyusyu is around 1,400 miles = 2,253 km. Japan map <
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/jp.htm >
+
Samuel
Langhorne
Clemens
(Mark Twain is his pen name. For more info, check out <
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56363 >)
The Author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer , The adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, etc. <
http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/twainbio.html ><
http://www.answers.com/topic/mark-twain > I bet most of Tom and
Huckleberry’s adventures must be related to the Mississippi.
** The U.S. map <
http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/us.htm >,
“Down
The Mississippi”,
The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., New York, 1995
*** <
http://users.stlcc.edu/jangert/itasca/headwtr.html
>
**** Itasca State Park <
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/itasca/index.html >: Locate
the source of the Mississippi <
http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/mn.htm >
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