Wednesday February 14th 2018

It was foggy and warm this morning. The temperature only got down into the sixties overnight. During the day the fog dissipated, but it was still a mostly cloudy day. It was very humid with a high temperature in the low eighties. On the few occasions that the sun broke through the clouds it was downright uncomfortable. The fog is forecast to return tonight.

Horace Wilkinson Bridge across the Mississippi River. The thick clouds were around all day.

Barge staging area.

After the fog lifted I made the thirteen mile drive back to the downtown Baton Rouge area. Traffic on the Interstates was terrible. I was in stop and go traffic for almost half of the trip. My destination was the levee on the east bank of the Mississippi river. A park area, a number of museums and a couple of casinos reside in the area. My primary goal was the USS Kidd World War II era destroyer and the accompanying veterans memorial and museum.

Large tug pushing a group of barges with a smaller single barge tug coming around behind the big one. A large ocean going cargo ship is tied to the dock on the far side of the river.

With a little help from Google maps I found my way to the levee and got a parking space in an open lot beside the levee. The area is just north of the Horace Wilkinson Bridge which carries I-10 across the Mississippi river. I immediately became fascinated by the barge traffic on the river. The section of river in front of my parking location was used for forming, separating and manipulating large groups of barges. While I was there one group of barges was added to those already there. Smaller tugs immediately started breaking the string apart to reform other groups.

Pushing the new group of barges along side the once that were already there.

Walking along the levee was a fun way to explore the river bank. The levee shields the city from flood waters up to around forty eight feet. That’s higher than any previous floods in the area, but it doesn’t help if the water gets around the levee somewhere. All of the permanently moored boats in the river like the USS Kidd and the casino riverboats are designed to rise and fall with the river level. It’s a lot of engineering.

USS Kidd World War II era destroyer.

Looking at the USS Kidd from in front of the bow you can see how narrow the ship is for speed and maneuverability.

I decided against visiting the USS Kidd and museum. The ship is smaller than I expected and didn’t look like it had anyone visiting today. In the hour or more that I was in the area of the ship, I didn’t see anyone go aboard. When you visit a museum on a real slow day, you often get an unwanted personal tour or an attitude from the staff. I prefer to wander, look and read placards on my own.

Small maneuvering tug.

Another small tugboat.

Walking on the levee in the riverfront park area was a lot of fun. I could watch the traffic in the river for a long time. Unfortunately, I wasn’t dressed for today’s weather. I had switched to a short sleeve shirt, but still had heavy denim pants. When the sun was behind the clouds it was humid, but tolerable. When the sun broke through it was warm and I didn’t have sunscreen or a hat on. Still I spent over two hours walking and sitting on the levee. Before returning to camp I also checked out both casinos. After three months in Las Vegas these riverboat casinos weren’t very impressive.