Almost 70 percent of U.S. ag exports travel the upper Mississippi River and the Illinois waterway system.

Most of the locks and dams on the upper Mississippi River system are over 60 years old and many are in serious need of repair and rehabilitation.

I've always been fascinated by the Mississippi River and the way of life in these small river towns.

As a youngster I worked the river boats going down the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, pushing barges to Chicago, then all the way down to New Orleans.

I once paddled a canoe the length of the Mississippi River all the way from Itasca to New Orleans.

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.