The first time I saw the headwaters of the Mississippi River, I was a young twenty-something. The King and I were visiting a friend at Bemidji State College (now University) one weekend and we made the trek over — both the drive and the precarious walk across the slippery stones over which the Mississippi begins its 2,552 mille journey to the Gulf of Mexico.

As I remember that afternoon, we were the only visitors. Times have changed. Maybe it’s that more people are vacationing close to home this year, but the place was packed. In the 1960’s it would have been rare to see a group speaking Japanese, three ladies (one with a red dot in the middle of her forehead) beautifully dressed in ornate saris, a family conversing in a Scandinavian tongue, and a woman wearing a burka. And certainly they all would not have been there together on a July Saturday.

The young ‘uns with me, on their first visit to the landmark, weren’t all that excited about the drive; but they perked up at the water’s edge. I led the way across the stones, following a family reunion group helping a much-older-than-me grandma across. She was navigating nicely, but it wasn’t long before I fell off a slippery rock. Managing a quick save of my cell phone and shaking off my wounded pride, I reached the other side still mostly dry. After several poses to record the accomplishment for posterity, we waded thigh deep a ways down the Mississippi.

Not much exitement, but I hope they'll put it in their treasure bank and that it’s as good a memory for them as it was for my dad in these pictures from about seventy years ago. He remembers his lazy afternoon trip to the headwaters with a couple friends like it was yesterday. Times have changed, but that sign is still there. The Mississippi still flows to the Gulf of Mexico and Dad still finds joy in an adventure. And I am so glad he taught me that.

You take care of the earth and water it, making it rich and fertile. The river of God has plenty of water; it provides a bountiful harvest of grain, for You have ordered it so. Psalm 65:9