Kentucky 29 - 30 Sept 2010

The first mission was to cross the mighty Mississippi River after leaving Sikeston.

While there were bridges on highway 60 just above the confluence with Ohio we thought crossing a ferry would give us a better look at the expanse of the river.  This took us south a short distacne along route 105 and 106 to Dorena and across to Hickman..
The ferry was quite small but would have taken three times the 3 cars on it on our way to Hickman in Kentucky.

 The sign on the ferry says it all.

Unlike other river ferries previously experienced the propulsion was provided by an attached tug type boat swivelled at the front so that the boat was always travelling forward but the ferry pontoon went back and forth without turning around.

The other river traffic was large grain barges moved by tugs.  This one empty being taken to a loading terminal.

Loading a barge at the Hickman grain terminal.  Note how the end of the barge is out of the water as the rear end is filled first.  See next photo.

End of the barge just clear of the water during loading from the rear.

Heavy concrete river retaining wall along the river bank at Hickman fitted with removable shutters probaly designed to let water out that could become trapped in the town.

The lower level of the town behind the wall was largely vacant with the housing and shopping on a high terrace.

A few businesses remained.  This was a gym and artificial "sun" tanning shop.  The rent was probably cheap.

The Post Office also remained but was on a higher level.  The cards sent from here should nearly be in NZ by now as they were to leave a few minutes after we left them.

On the high terrace some buildings were impressive.

A view from the edge of the high terrace over the river and its current flood plain but we could not see the river channel.

Heading east north-east there were remnants of the past settlement left standing as nothing seems to get removed.

And well maintained homesteads with flourishing crops.

And churches on nearly every corner it seemed, many very substantial and of modern construction.

Also many well maintained older barns.

Many huge grain handling complexes, some on farm and some specialised commercial facilities.

Then suddenly into another community or town spread along the highway.

Rivers were once the main transportation routes and bridges were high like this one onto the "Land between the Lakes"  almost an island created after the daming of the Tenessee and Cumberland Rivers, before they flowed into the Ohio River which in turn flows into the Mississippi River.  The dams were part of the Tennesee Valley Authority project to control erosion and flooding in the Mississippi.  The area between the rivers, in which a very large number of families were removed, is now the "Land between the Lakes National Recreation Area" with a bridge similar to this one onto and off the land carrying route 68 that we were following (it also had a few other numbers as well).

 Downtown Elizabethtown,  we made it a bit later than intended but we were still on time to reach Lexington by 2pm even with crossing a time zone somehere along the way since leaving Sikeston that morning.