Today’s goal is to cross the Mississippi River. As we have progressed eastward the countryside has become greener. Almost everything has leafed out and grasses are in their spring growth. The further east the water become more readily available. A rough guide is the 100th meridian where to the west there is less than 20 inches of precipitation in a year while east of that invisible line it’s more than 20 inches. Land uses change and one can see it yet it’s such a gradual transition.
We cross the Mississippi River where the Ohio River joins. It’s two long bridges where it appears one is crossing a single vast river where part of the bridge is on an island. Rather it crosses the Mississippi touches land and crosses the Ohio right away. Flood control levies are evident but one wonders how these simple dirt structures can tame such an amazing river system.
We head to the “Land Between the Lakes” area in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee and stay at an Army Corp of Engineers campground on one of the huge lakes. These are was created from the Tennessee Valley Authority back in the 1930s.
Seeing North America 