It’s a Big Dam Country — Day 19

Wow. Day 19. 

Okay, it was­n’t much of a wow day.

From Louisville, KY to Cape Girardeau, MO via a scenic round the barn tour of Hoosier Nation­al For­est and San­ta Claus, IN.

I meant to vis­it the Can­nel­ton Lock and Dam in Can­nel­ton, IN and the New­burgh Lock and Dam in New­burgh, IN. 

I nev­er made it to Can­nel­ton. I got com­plete­ly turned around in the Hoosier Nation­al For­est and while I got this love­ly shot of the Ohio Riv­er at Leav­en­worth I nev­er actu­al­ly made it back to the riv­er until I was 25 miles west of the dam. 

For what it’s worth, the Hoosier Nat’l For­est is pret­ty and has love­ly, curvy, swoopy roads. They just don’t go where I thought they went.

I did how­ev­er find San­ta Claus. Here’s the hard­ware store. It is by far the most nor­mal thing in town.

I did final­ly find the New­burgh Lock and Dam. Not much to see. Small­er than some of the oth­ers and awk­ward­ly placed. 

This is the top of the tug­boat that was lock­ing through at the time. I could­n’t see what car­go they were pushing.

By this time the heat was blind­ing. 97 degrees. Even the finest Ger­man engi­neer­ing gives up in the face of that kind of heat and crawl­ing con­struc­tion traf­fic. The AC could­n’t keep up, it was cool­er to roll the win­dows down and sweat in the breeze. But I (we?) sol­diered on because we were head­ing for the last point of this trek down the Ohio Riv­er. Yup — Mis­sis­sip­pi Riv­er here we come.

Or not.

Fort Defi­ance park is the only access to the actu­al point of confluence. 

and it was *Closed for Cleaning*

Sob.

The town of Cairo did­n’t make me feel any bet­ter. Once pros­per­ous now large­ly abandoned. 

I point­ed the GPS at a nice hotel in Cape Girardeau and turned my back on the Ohio Riv­er Valley.

I did find this sweet lit­tle park-let with a board­walk to to riv­er view on the way.

Made me feel a bit better.

Today’s Route:

View It’s a Big Dam Coun­try — Day 19 in a larg­er map