Time magazine is looking for the &uot;pulse of America,&uot; and Natchez is on of the stops on its journey. Journalists from the newsmagazine arrived in the city Tuesday night during a two-week trip down the Mississippi River on the chartered Grampa Woo III.

&uot;We want to get a feel for what people are discussing up and down America, we want to stumble upon some good stories and we want to have some fun,&uot; said Time managing editor Walter Isaacson, who is a New Orleans native.

A team of editors, reporters and photographers said Time plans to explore issues that have national as well as local significance, such as race, education, health care, religion, family and poverty, with an eye toward how those issues will affect presidential and congressional elections in the fall.

The 1,254-mile trip began in Mark Twain’s hometown, Hannibal, Mo., and ends in New Orleans Friday.

Reports on the journey will appear in the July 4 issue of the magazine, but daily reports are also featured on the magazine’s Web site at www.time.com/mississippi.

The dispatches feature the Time team’s impressions of local culture — from the need for more catfish at the catfish museum in Belzoni to the more pressing problems facing towns along the river.

&uot;The problem in the delta today isn’t mechanical engineering, it’s social,&uot; writes Mark Coatney in a dispatch from Day 6, in Memphis, Tenn. &uot;The region is one of thepoorest in the U.S. The average family of four has an income of $16,583, only a little over half of the national average. In Mississippi County, Arkansas, 35 percent of kids live in poverty and 40 percent of adults don’t have a high school diploma. What can and will be done about those numbers will be one of the main topics of the next leg of our trip.&uot;

Reports on the Time trip are also being featured on CBS News’ &uot;The Early Show&uot; this week.