Springfield to Paducah, Kentucky

Marianne is a very good quilter and Paducah KY is home to the National Quilt Museum. It stands to reason therefore that we should visit this city.

It poured rain as we set off but after a few miles it stopped.  We reflected that except for a few brief occasions, we have not experienced much rain on this journey.

Notice the price of the petrol (in red). The green price is diesel. Fuel is cheap in Missouri, typically about $2.08 for regular.

There was not a lot to take photos of for the first few hours. Marianne has taken most of the photos from the car during this trip and she amused herself by taking photos of the vegetation beside the road.

My job is to crop the photos and load them up into the blog. Once we are out of the car however, the camera goes back into my hands.

Missouri is a very pretty state, but not spectacular like the western states.

The road goes on and on.

We stopped for lunch at this diner in Dexter, MO. I wonder if I have lost weight on the trip. Certainly the elegance of my clothes has not increased.

Inside the diner. I asked the waitress the age of the diner and I seem to remember that she said it was less than 30 years old.

We crossed the Mississippi River. To a certain extent, the magic of the trip is a bit less now that we have left the 'west'.

The confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. On the left is Missouri, on the right is Kentucky. Between the two rivers is Illinois.

So briefly back into Illinois. It seems like years since we were in Chicago and seeing the Frank Lloyd Wright houses.

We decided to go to the point where the rivers join at Cairo.

Bridge over the Mississippi.

Huge barge coming down the Ohio.

Bridge over the Ohio to Kentucky.

The area where Fort Defiance was located. General Ulysses S. Grant was the commander here during the Civil War.

I stood in the water for a few seconds. I sometimes remark to Americans that one of the principle reasons why the USA is so wealthy is water. So much of the country gets plenty of water and these two rivers that join here drain much of the land between the Alleghenies and the Rockies.

By the way, the Ohio is considerably wider at this point than the Mississippi.

Road signs in the US can be confusing at times.

We cross the Ohio to Kentucky.

The Ohio.

Flood plain.

Entering Kentucky.

Kentucky is another pretty state and I am looking forward to driving through it.

July 4th is next Monday and there are tents set up everywhere selling fireworks.