You're going to meet your own tail lights coming around those curves!

After our float down the wild and scenic Eleven Point River, we picked up our motor home that was waiting for us at the grocery store parking lot in Alton, Missouri. Denisa did a little shopping to thank them for the free parking today, and then we headed down the very curvy section of highway 160. The outfitter we used for our kayak trip warned us about this section. His exact quote was, "You're going to meet your own tail lights coming around those curves!"

The other thing curving through these Ozark Mountains is the river we just floated on. We passed over the Eleven Point River again on our trip heading east today.

We weren't the only ones on the road, as this is the only road in far southern Missouri. So we were meeting a fair number of locals. Some of the locals aren't going very fast, so they can further complicate the travel in this area.

The outfitter that warned us about this road might have actually been right this time. It was one of the worst stretches of narrow winding road ever! We didn't see any other RVs on this road. It was only 39 miles to the next town of Doniphan, but it took us an hour and a half to get there. We checked into our campground at Rocky River RV Park, and made our way to our site.

We feel a little silly that we had called ahead and made reservations in this great big campground. We took a picture from the far end of the three rows of camping sites. We were the only one crazy enough to drive that road because we were the only RV here! Needless to say, it was a peaceful night at this deserted campground.

In the pickup we drove the hilly streets of Doniphan, but we couldn't find anything to do. So we left early the next morning. Our first stop was at Boomland. This is Missouri's version of Texas's Buc-ees. People come here to buy gas, but they get so much more!

They have home decor, clothing, snacks, and souvenirs. They specialize in hot sauce, and this is only half of their inventory. Some of the hot sauce requires you to sign a waiver before the purchase.

They also have "the world's largest fireworks store" and a restaurant that includes a buffet line, a grill,  an ice cream shop, and this large collection of wild animals.

In case you would think that this stop was all about food and souvenirs, it also has a history component. In the field in front of Boomland is a historical marker that explains this region's part in the exploration of the brand new Louisiana purchase that is outlined on the map. We are situated at the star on the map below, on the knob of the new purchase. This is also close to where Lewis and Clark camped in the early days of their expedition.

It wasn't long after our stop at Boomland that we came to the eastern edge of Missouri. The bridge over the Mississippi River on Highway 60 is a narrow one. Driving over this long bridge in a motor home takes a steady hand to keep from hitting our right side mirror on the metal beams . . .

and our left side mirror on the oncoming trucks. It was a long tight squeeze across the Mississippi River, and it felt like we met an unusually large number of wide vehicles on this bridge with no margin for error.

Half-way across the Mississippi River found us entering a new state. We were a little surprised to see that today's travel would take us into the southern tip of the state of Illinois. We pulled over into the parking lot, and made the walk into Illinois's Camp Defiance State Park. There is an old observation tower at the southern point of the park for great river views.

We are now at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. The Ohio River is coming from the left in the picture below, and ending into the Mississippi River that is coming from the right. They continue together south at this point, where this wide and muddy river will be known as the Mississippi until it hits the Gulf coast. This point is also the place where Lewis and Clark spent a week in 1803. They used that time to perfect their skills in determining longitude and latitude, something they would use often in their westward expedition.

This was a great place to watch the barge traffic that was coming down the Mississippi River. It was also interesting to see the silhouette of that long and narrow bridge we had just crossed in the motor home.

We watched four different barges make the turn at this point. It's hard to explain how long they are, but we finally squeezed one into a single photo when we got it at the right angle. That boat is pushing 15 barges! That's five barges in length, and three barges wide. Each one of those barges is around 195 feet long, so this entire rig is around a quarter-mile in length. We were in awe of how many trucks it would have taken to transport this same amount of cargo down the highway.

All the barges we saw were coming down the Mississippi River, and then they were met by a second tug boat that helped them make the wide turn to go up the Ohio River. Now working against the current on the Ohio, it was a difficult task to make that turn against the strong force of the river. This tug and barge were parked near the point where we were standing. In the distance behind it we could see the next bridge we must cross.

This looks and feels just like the narrow steel bridge we just crossed, but now we are going over the Ohio River.

Half-way across, we saw the small green sign on the steel rail that indicated we were now in Kentucky.

So in just a few miles, we drove from Missouri to Illinois to Kentucky. It feels like our summer travels have sped up! We are excited to be in Kentucky, as we somehow missed this state in our motor home travels for the last seven years. On the drive today, Denisa read about a nice welcome center in Kentucky, and we headed there to pick up maps and information. This welcome center is in an old mansion that was abandoned for many years in the outskirts of Paducah, Kentucky.

But the locals decided it would make a great travel center, and went to work refurbishing it for the state. We took a tour that showed pictures of the vandalized inside of the building, and then we got to see it brought back to its present (and past) glory with its ornate ceilings and beautiful wooden trim.

This room has the home's name "Whitehaven" carved into the mantel piece. We had to ask the tour guide/travel experts why this red brick mansion had such a name. They explained that the white paint had temporarily been removed so the 100+ year-old bricks and mortar could be repaired. White Haven should be white again soon.

Our free tour even took us through the grand foyer and up the steps to the second floor.

That's where two huge mirrors hung across from each other, making an infinity effect that made the mirrors go on forever. Mark was trying to take a picture that also looked like Denisa went on forever.

One of the upstairs bedrooms was a tribute to one of Paducah's favorite sons. Alben Barkley was the Vice President of the United States under Harry Truman. This room includes gifts that were presented to him from different countries, as well as the suit he wore when he was sworn into the second highest office in the land.

We can't say enough about how nice and clean this travel stop was. We were also impressed with how helpful the women at the information desk were, and how good the house tour was. Good job Kentucky! But the real reason we are here, is that we read that they allow overnight parking. We were glad to get here early enough to snag a spot in the line of long parking spaces to the side of White Haven. We saw many trucks that pulled in and had to pull out when they saw the parking was full. We snapped a picture of our first night in Kentucky, nestled between 15 trucks.

It was an interesting travel day through Missouri, Illinois, and now Kentucky. We slept well in our picturesque parking lot after a day of driving over narrow bridges and meeting our tail lights coming around those curves!