My original post didn't get saved so I'm writing this from scratch. I wrote this last September and it's only now ready to be told.

I decided to attempt to hike out to an island that is typically impassible by land most of the time. Interestingly though, this year is a major exception (or at least I think it will be.) Sadly, when I got there I found out that the river was still too high to make a trek out to the island. Thankfully, there was still a lot to see that you might not have been able to see otherwise. Old rails and wheels for old quarry carts. A rusting metal loop that jutted from one of the limestone pieces and an interesting metal... thing... that I had no clue what it was. I started exploring the area, not even attempting to find mud outright. I was just letting my natural river historian curiosity move me.

So I went up to the furthest point that I could get out to before the river stood in front of me and turned. As I looked south down this major river I saw this fascinating old metal machine jutting 2/3 out of the bank. My eyes lit up, thinking it was some sort of engine (I am focusing on river history and in my mind I was thinking it was a part of a steamboat... it wasn't) and actively made my way to it. The cracked earth withstood my movements as I went around to take pictures of it at first. Alas, that security was false and I shrieked when my footing gave way into the muck. I had always heard about breaking quickly in excitement over finding deep mud but I had never quite believed it was true until that day. My heart sped up and I was whispering "yes" "I can't believe I found this!" "oh my goodness." over and over again. My husband called out to me and I told him I was ok. He said that he had found some good stuff. I was certain that I had found better but my history-buff in me forced me to-carefully-make my way out of the thick silt on the bank of the river and over to where my hubby was. He encouraged me to walk across a slightly cracked surface. I went around it temporarily (I wanted to make sure the camera didn't get messed up) and then walked straight into it. The thick muck clung to my sandals and made it hard for me to walk. Sadly it was nowhere as deep as the muck next to that rock crusher. I debated going back to the other spot by hubby was too hot and tired so we headed home.

When I got home and did a little minor research I found out that at one time almost a half a century ago the spot I was at was an old limestone quarry and pickup spot for riverboats. I suppose this is one spot that needs to be added to my permanent "to watch" spots for the next time the river gets that low. Sadly, I don't know when that will happen again (the drought that allowed so much to be seen was a record-maker.)