At one stage this afternoon we crossed the mighty Mississippi River and, in so doing crossed the State Line from Illinois to Iowa. The bridge, with a swing section for big ships, isn’t much to write home about but the river is broad and, yes, it just keeps rolling along – for 4,000 kilometres, to be precise, being the largest river system in the US. Indian ghosts are again present in the river’s name which comes from Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or Algonquin) name for the river, Misi-ziibi (Great River).