Pulled into Springfield, MS around 2 pm. Got up at 7 and was out by 8. Crossed the Mississippi at 9:10 am. No place to stop to take pictures so I rolled down my windows and shot one handed out my windows!  The area along the Mississippi brings a new meaning to the word "flat." I drove more than 25 miles before I came to anything slightly resembling a bump in the road.
Missouri is rolling mountains and at the road cuts the substrata looks like it is horizontal sedimentary rocks. There are numerous signs for visiting caverns because of the eroded limestone. Looks like a beef cattle area although I wouldn't know a beef cow from a milk cow, except I am not seeing any black and white cows like the ones on Ben and Jerry's ice cream. (That would be a Guernsey, I suppose)
Had the roads to myself this AM because the good folks were all in church and the radio dial was filled with religion. But I did hear Bach's Ave Maria right when I learned that Mike Wallace had passed . Very fitting. Most of the drive today was on US 60 which is a divided highway but not limited access. Had to be really careful and it takes a moment or so longer to process that there is a stop light out in the middle of nowhere. This really IS somewhere because I passed signs for the homes of Laura Wilder Ingalls and Mark Twain.
My two nights in Paducah were good. I came down with wicked bad allergies and was taking Claritin D and Delsum cough syrup so I was a bit woozy.Went to the Quilt Museum and looked at the "Wall to Wall" Murals which are painted on the flood walls. The city is on a bluff above the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio Rivers. Major important city in River history. Just down river the Ohio joins the Mississippi. The cultural part of town is called "Lowertown".
They have built 12 miles of concrete walls along the the Paducah side of McCracken County and the last flood came up to about a foot shy of going over the top of the flood wall. It is hard to believe the amount of water that could possibly go over the flood walls. The city is up on a bluff at least 60 ft above water level, and then the walls are another 15 ft. My Geography professor used to curse the Civil engineers for ever building levies because once you build them "IT" will come. "IT " being water. And every time someone upstream paves over land for a parking lot it creates runoff that doesn't soak into the soil, so water goes into storm drains and into streams and into rivers and the problem cascades.  Every time someone up stream builds a levy it creates more problems for those down river. Just look at New Orleans. They build the levies higher and the land is sinking at about the same rate! End of lecture on levies.
I liked Paducah until I learned there was a Gaseous Diffusion Plant there. They enrich all of the uranium for all of the US Nuclear power plants. Things glow around the area! My prejudice! It was so clever of them to build on the Mississippi so that when there is a leak or disaster the river gets polluted.
I am starting to see the old time type of windmills and I saw someone wearing the first cowboy hat.
So the first week was a real test. Living outdoors 24/7 has been a trial especially with temps down in the low 30's at night and 50's during the day. Going from sedentary living in a 55+ community that doesn't have a stair in sight to schlepping gear in and out of the car and dealing with the tent etc has been a challenge but I expected to feel the effects. Didn't expect the allergies attacking but I suppose I should have for seen that happening. So it is warming up now and I have a rhythm of things. If I don't cook, brew coffee or take a shower in the morning and pack the night before, I can get up and out in an hour. Shower and cooking and loading in the morning makes it more like a 2 hour phenomena. I have a few one night stays coming up until I get to Taos and they are the longest driving days too. Should be interesting. I am already going to bed at sundown but despite all that I have managed to get most of the second motif of my shawl knit! Knitting after dark does not work even with a lantern!
Happy Easter and I especially want to say "'Hi" to my fellow choir members at 1ST U that produced such wonderful music every Sunday but especially at Easter.