Drifting down the river -- because it's there

As far as anyone can tell, the two drifters -- literally -- who stopped briefly in Cape Girardeau last week had no agenda.

Since mid-July, John Holden and Jack Mahaffy have been floating down the Mississippi River on a homemade raft that's kept afloat by 11 barrels (they lost a barrel near St. Louis). When they reach New Orleans, they plan to catch a bus home.

And that's that.

Most of the travelers coming down the river who stop in Cape Girardeau have a goal: They want to set a record, or call attention to environmental concerns, or raise money to find a cure for some disease, or take the pulse of Middle America, as a team of editors and reporters from Time magazine did a couple of years ago.

But not Holden and Mahaffy.

For weeks they've just watched the river and scenery. They've just been drifting through life.

When you're 23 years old and don't have any better plans, what's wrong with floating down the mighty Mississippi? Mark Twain might have said the two drifters are a barrel short of a raft -- but he would have loved to join them.