Along the Mississippi

Our cruise took us from the port of New Orleans down the mighty Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. [Diversion - when spelling Mississippi, do you, like me, revert back to those days of elementary school when we were drilled on spelling that massive word? M-I-ess-ess, I-ess-ess, I-pee-pee-I ..... Sorry, back to our regular programming]

I was amazed how long it too the ship to finally reach open water. Our ship departed at 5pm, and at 11pm, we could still make out the shadows of bayou / land along the sides of the ship. I learned that green and red lights mark the way for boats traveling the river - red on one side, green on the other. Stay between the lights and you won't hit land by accident (a good thing, for sure).

Being a chemical engineer, and having spent my entire career working at various chemical plants, any chemical manufacturing facility interests me. The massive refineries along the river were no different.






Those tall, skinny towers are distillation columns, each designed to purify the material being fed to it.

I know not everyone may find these massive facilities interesting, but they are important to our everyday lives, and I certainly appreciate what goes on to design, build, operate and maintain these refineries.