We drove through Hermann, New Haven, Bonnets Mill, Chamois, Frankenstien, and Washington, MO.
We were almost to Jeff city.
We crossed and visited the Missouri, Osage, and Gasconade rivers and they were still very high.
We saw Rump 2020 campaign signs.
We saw endless American flags, billboards and signs promoting their white Jesus.
This is the Gasconade river still above flood stage.
We talked to a 77 year old man who just pulled this boat in from the water. He said the river had only recently dropped to this level.
It's still quite high.
He'd been out fishing but didn't catch anything and complained about Asian Carp.
I'd read about Asian Carp in the Missouri Conservation magazine and was actually able to hold a conversation about this highly invasive species with him. I was surprised to recall the details.
They cause serious damage to the native fish populations in the lakes and rivers that they infest because they out-compete other fish for food and space. They eat the alga which newly hatched fish need for food to grow into minnows. They are also thought to lower water quality, which can kill off sensitive organisms like native freshwater mussels.
They were imported by the US from Asia to help aquaculture and wastewater treatment facilities keep retention ponds clean but chronic flooding caused accidental releases that allowed these fish to escape into the Mississippi River system and migrate into the Missouri and Illinois rivers.
And now they are in the Gasconade river.
He told me they jump into his boat.
That's Cor-ten steel on the bridge.
The white gravel had recently been dumped there by the county to provide traction over the mud.
