started
You might ask, “why Paducah?” It isn’t on the Mississippi River, it’s on the Ohio River. Simple… on several occasions we planned to go to Kentucky and every time we did, we had a change of plans. Since we were passing this close, we decided to make a small detour so that Susie can claim her 50th state.
As we frequently do, we left St. Louis very early and headed down the River Road, which is US Highway 61 at least until Cape Girardeau. Our plan was to stop at the historic towns of Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and Cairo on the way to Paducah.
Once we left the St. Louis Metropolitan area, the terrain became rolling hills and we could not see the river. Ironically, US 61 is part of the Great River Road system. When we entered Ste Genevieve, the road signs directed us to the historic area and the visitor center. The person on duty suggested that we see the historic houses, many dating to the mid-18th century. We spent some time looking at the homes from the outside… most of them were not open until later in the morning.
We continued on to Cape Girardeau, about 60 miles south of Ste. Genevieve. We entered the town and saw plenty of signs pointing to the various university campuses, but nothing about the historic district and visitors center. It wasn’t until we were about to get on the bridge to the Illinois side of the Mississippi that we saw a sign and decided not to go back.
We crossed the river into Illinois and headed to Cairo. Thus far on this trip, we saw struggling small towns all along the route from Hannibal. Cairo is among the worst of all of them. I just wanted to see the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers at the southern tip of the town. The southern tip contains Fort Defiance State Park. It has obviously not well maintained by the City of Cairo. The entrance to the park is just south of the entrance to the bridge across the Ohio and just north of the bridge going across the Mississippi. The sign to the park is not readily visible and before we knew it were heading to Missouri. After a U-turn, we headed back to the park, where I managed to get some pictures of the meeting of two great rivers.
We left Cairo and entered Kentucky… Susie now has visited all 50 states. Paducah was a very pleasant surprise, especially the Historical District. Susie had three things she wanted to see, The National Quilt Museum, The Riverwalk and the murals on the flood wall… all walking distance from each other. The museum didn’t allow photography so I could not share pictures of some of the quilts on display. We walked along the Riverfront Walk and checked out many of the murals. We met Terri Grief, former president of the American Association of School Librarians, for dinner in the Historical District. A great conclusion for the day.
