An easy 71 miles starting flat to the rivers then gentle hills in Kentucky and beautiful backroads to Paducah. Two old narrow bridges span the Mississippi and Ohio rivers with about 200 yards in IL just south of Cairo. Initially the plan was to van shuttle us across but the MO county sheriff agreed to stop eastbound traffic for a few groups of us, which was awesome. It's a phenomenal amount of water - the rivers are huge on their own and vast together.
Paducah, KY 'micropolitan' area is about 100,000 - founded by William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) in 1827 (with the origin of the name somewhat of a mystery) Paducah became a steamship and rail hub at the junction of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. Bricks and steel were manufactured here, and major dry docks for steamships and the largest steam locomotive workshop (for the Illinois Central) in the nation followed. The railroad was the largest employer until the advent of diesel locomotives. Dippin' Dots ice cream is headquartered here and the National Quilt Museum is the biggest tourist attraction with over 40,000 visitors a year - 'Quilt week' became so big (and perhaps intimidating to locals with roving gangs of quilters) that they had to divide it into a spring and fall week...
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| Crossing the Mississippi |
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| Ohio River |
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| Abandoned farmhouse |
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