One More River To Cross

Departed:  Marion, Illinois  9:00 a.m.  Arrived:  Nashville, Tennessee  4:30 p.m.

Hey everybody,
Today we started out with no agenda except that we wanted to go to two bodies of water, one in Cairo, Illinois(surely it's pronounced ki-ro) where the Mississippi River and the Ohio Rivers converge. The other being a place right on the Ky/Tn border called "land between the lakes"... basically a piece of land between two lakes that you could drive down.

So we found Cairo, where the two rivers meet. It was kind of odd, this very small, very ghost town like area right next to these huge rivers where there seem to be several barges and an industrial area.  As we drove down the "Great River Road", a national scenic route along the river, we came upon a scenic overlook with this huge cross up on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi.  Pretty neat.

Memorial cross on hill above river

We then decided to follow this Great River Road scenic route.  It took us through rolling hills of corn, peanuts or soybeans, couldn't decide which. Anyway, it seemed to be only us and the farmers on this road. At one point for about 5 miles we were behind this convoy of farm vehicles. They were so big and we were so big, we just poked along behind until they turned off.

our view of the farm convoy

We started seeing signs of a state park, Fort Columbus, KY, and thought we would check it out.
A neat place high on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi.  Unbeknown  to us it had a little Civil War History.
It was here that General Polk attempted to barricade the Mississippi to keep the Union barges from coming south with supplies using huge chains. I hope you can tell from the picture how big they were.  They also had an original canon that they had retrieved from the bottom of the Mississippi.

chain used on river to stop Union barges

neat tree on a bluff above Mississippi River

So next was our quest to go to the Land Between the Lakes.... so after meandering along the Great River Road we finally get to the road that leads to this land and we can't cross it because they are resurfacing the bridge and would not let large vehicles across, that being us... Oh, well... we turn around,  find a little lunch and decide to head toward Music City.

So we will call today river day, as we crossed the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland Rivers.
Happy Camping,
Carla