So much rain!

"Look Dad, Giraffe Gates!"

"Who in the world told you those are Giraffe Gates?” replied the father.

"Billy said."

"Son, I have told you before that Billy has an over active imagination." replied the father, "Those are irrigation systems in storage, not Giraffe Gates. Looks like several thousand."

After a brief pause the father mused "In the great World Water War nearly two billion people were killed or died because of the lack of water. Rainfall patterns changed so much the Western Alliance in Brasilia was forced to buy the irrigation systems from farmers and here they sit, rusty reminders of the powers of Nature."

"Gollee Dad, was that a lake?” the boy asked as he pointed to a depression in the ground.

“No, Son", replied the father, "that is known as a sinkhole.  Underneath the dirt there was once a big pool of water known as an aquifer. The irrigation systems that once lined both sides of the Mississippi River pumped out more water than was put back into the aquifer. Nobody seemed to mind it.

According to your Great Grandfather, this point of view was taken by townspeople up and down the Mississippi River.

I suspect that the great swings of dry and wet may have been the real culprit. For a year or two or more there were periods of no rain in the places where water would refill the aquifer, likewise when the rains did come, it was two and three feet at a time.

So much rain!  It went roaring by without time for the water to get down to refill the aquifer. When there was no water underneath to support the weight of the dirt, the topsoil collapsed to fill in the space where water had once been.

Son, let's us put our masks back on. This Hydra-Vim is good transport but sometime leaks outside fumes. Soon we will be through the desert and we will be able to seen the 'MOHO Canal' as some people call it. The full name is the Mississippi and Ohio Barge Canal. Barges go up stream on even weeks and down stream on first and third weeks of the Revised 50 Week Calendar. Barges once went up the Mississippi but no more."

After thirty minutes the father removed his mask and advised his son to do the same as this was the prescribed time for mask assisted toxin removal.

"Look Son!, the MOHO Canal," the father said as he pointed to a massive concrete and steel dike before them, "This thing runs from deep water in the Gulf of Mexico all the way up the Ohio Valley to Pittsburg."

"What do they carry on the barges?” asked the son.

"Well everything you can imagine. We get our bananas from Maryland but most are sped down the Canal for export. Trosteelium and other construction materials come up stream. The transports are all hydrogen powered, just like this Hydra-Vim, and use anti-gravity propulsion to allow them to move really fast. Their only drawback is they must have a water surface to operate on while our vehicle works only on land."

Climbing down from the Canal's high ladders the father said," Son, We must head back to Danville. Those Government calculations on how far one can go on a Hydrogen Tank seem to be misleading as I think we barely have enough fuel to get through the Lowland and Highland deserted regions and back home."

"Look Dad," the boy excitedly pointed as he ripped off his mask, “a castle on the hill!"

The father looked up at the hill.

"I had hoped we would have fuel to get up that hill, but I believe it would be cutting it too close with the fuel we have. Perhaps next year we can have saved up enough energy credits to make a trip there.

Actually it is not a castle. It is the old County Court House that was used in your great grandfather's time. Your grandfather said there was a town there that had been there since before the time of Mark Twain. No one knows for sure what happened. Some thought a flood gate failed and others that the bluffs were washed away in the Great Flood.

In any event the water towers fell into the river and water washed away the bluffs leading to the Court House and the people left well before the mandatory evacuations of '69. Say, from this angle it does look like a castle perched on a lone cliff. 

Nap now, Son.  It is a long way back home."