Looper friends snapped this classic pic as we passed The Arch. That’s me in pink on the bow. Woohoo! |
DEEP INTO THE RIVER SYSTEM
This leg of the river system had many turns. We cruised down the Mississippi River, and turned East on the Ohio River. Then after Paducah, Kentucky, we left The Ohio for the Cumberland River. This marked our entrance to the beautiful Land Between the Lakes region. The Tennessee Valley Authority flooded the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River to create power-generating dams during the New Deal era. And to prevent flooding disasters. The channels we followed within the lakes were former rivers. We took the Cumberland River all the way to Nashville. Then, we did a 180 and came back West, up Barkley Lake, turned West, then South on the Tennessee River, which runs through Kentucky Lake. Sorry—this explanation was hard to make simple! Now you know why I used to say “I don’t know how we will be going through all the inland rivers. I just know we start in Chicago and end in Mobile Bay, Alabama.” |
ST. LOUIS, HERE WE COME
Once we hit the Mississippi River, we stopped for five full days in Alton, Illinois, and for good reason. Alton was a thirty-minute drive North of St. Louis.(1) We decided to spend a rare overnight away from Sacagawea and take a good look around St. Louis.
Alton was also a great opportunity to shake off the mud from Sacagawea. Locks, anchoring, and creative overnight tie-ups are a dirty business. Alton was large and protected so it was populated with a lot of Loopers. There were many more personal stories to swap.
First, we drove a rental car to our one night of luxury: 21c Museum Hotel, in the downtown district. The interior was artsy-cool and creative. It helped us feel part of civilization again.
Second, we drove straight to The Arch. It was my first time, Mike’s second, to see this gigantic symbol of “The Gateway to the West.”
The Arch is tall - 630 feet. That’s Mike at the bottom there for a comparison. |
There were many surprising fun facts about The Arch.(2) What stuck with me is that The Arch aligned with mid-century modern aesthetics. It was built in 1966. While it was designed as a monument to Thomas Jefferson for his role in the Louisiana Purchase, and for sending Lewis & Clark on their famous exploration of The West (hiring Sacagawea and others), it was symbolic of a gate to the Western United States.
The Arch was also part of a larger effort to revitalize the waterfront and bring in tourists. When U.S. highways were being built, towns were looking for ways to attract car-driving tourists, bringing in revenue.(3)
Mike taking pics via the small windows at the top of The Arch. The funky, private elevators you take to the top were fun. This video shows the theory behind the innovative elevators at the 9:00 minute mark. The rest of the video gives a short background on The Arch too. |
Directly underground was a new museum built in 2018. It showed, among many other topics, the best and bluntest description of local, state, and U.S. government breaking of treaties with Native American tribes and the Trail of Tears I’ve ever seen from a government museum. I could have spent much more time strolling through engaging displays, but it was time to get ready for dinner.
We tried to do a one-evening trip right in St. Louis: we shared a nice Italian dinner in the historic Hill neighborhood and found our way to the Soulard district where we listened to live rock and jazz. Considering it was a Friday night, the bars were pretty quiet. Oh well.
In the morning we spent a little time at our hotel’s gallery. It featured local artists who made social commentary with their art. I found the art innovative and interesting. It was a fresh perspective, especially compared to more traditional art at the museums we saw on the Loop thus far.
My sister-in-law, Lesa, used to live in St. Louis, so we took her excellent advice and focused day two at the shady Missouri Botanical Garden. It was about 90 degrees. We appreciated its Climatron (rain forest), Japanese garden, and English garden. The colors and well-kept grounds made for a relaxing stroll. Who knows, maybe we’ll incorporate what we saw into our next home’s(4) garden?
A bright and colorful day at the Missouri Botanical Garden. |
Lunch in St. Louis was at Pappy’s BBQ. I took this pic when we were halfway through the enormous line in their vibrant hallway. Yes, it was worth the 45-minute wait for a table. |
On the way back to Alton we made a side stop to the National Great Rivers Museum. I’m not sure your average Joe would appreciate the museum, but we spent a couple hours devouring the placards and pictures about how people have tried to control these rivers on which we were traveling.(3)
As we passed by St. Louis, Mike snapped this shot of The Arch and moi. I loved seeing cities from the rivers. |
PADUCAH, KENTUCKY: BBQ FESTIVAL
Shortly after we left Alton, the Missouri River joins the Mississippi River. Then, at Cairo, we made a sharp left, North, onto the Ohio River, going against a 1 MPH current. The water became noticeable better smelling and more green. This leg was still industrial, but less so. Five days after leaving Alton, we pulled over for two nights in Western Kentucky in the large town of Paducah.
We stumbled on to the BBQ festival. Just got lucky, I guessed. The local celebration was a little reminiscent of our Fourth of July in Wrangell, Alaska last year. I felt a long way from where I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The event served as a homecoming for locals. We saw a large swath of families and older people milling around the booths, bumping into friends, sharing pork ribs, and listening to a parade of musical bands. There was country music, but also rock and rap.
Choosing from the 25-foot, larger-than-life menu at the Paducah BBQ Festival on a sweltering evening. I was so happy to be in BBQ country again. |
There were two famous Looper stops in Paducah. One was the National Quilt Museum. It featured contemporary quilts and a couple famous, award-winning artists. I wouldn’t call it a museum, but rather an impressive gallery.
This is a quilt! The Quilt Museum featured quilts like this from Susan Carlson. She tended to depict larger-than-life animals in her quilts. |
I’ve zoomed in on the paw for you. See the layers of lace? The detail in her work was incredible. |
The second popular Looper site was the murals along a 14-foot high, three-block flood wall, right along the waterfront. This mural was my favorite. See the motorcycles of the past looking at the motorcycles of the present, and vice versa? It was so hot, that I opted to view them after dark. Controlling floods are a serious business in Paducah. Paducah already sits on a very high bank, but they need walls for periodic floods. |
LAND BETWEEN THE LAKES
By the time we arrived at the Land Between the Lakes (see map inset above), we knew we were transiting faster than we needed. We didn’t want to get to the Gulf of Mexico until December, the official end of hurricane season. We slowed down by anchoring/gunkholing.
Pisgah Bay, Kentucky Lake, Kentucky. End of September. We saw few boats anchoring in this lovely area. We saw quite a few fishermen in bass boats. Calm, great weather. |
And here’s the view at water level. The clouds. The green, fluffy forest. The blue sky reflecting in the water. Heaven. |
We interrupted our gunkholing with by a three-day pause at a marina. We knew the remnants from Hurricane Helene would hit our area. We were in Paris Landing Marina, in Western Tennessee, and experienced continuous, heavy rain for two days. There was no wind to speak of. We watched the news reports, as the rest of you, hearing about the unfortunate floods in Eastern Tennessee and North Carolina.
I felt rewarded by our endurance through the upper river system by the soft beauty of Kentucky Lake. We anticipated more of this as we headed South. The temperature was consistently below 90. Autumn arrived.
NASHVILLE, MUSIC CITY
When some Looper friends caught up with us, we cruised together for a three-day side trip on the Cumberland River to Nashville. The sights along the Cumberland were similar in beauty and remoteness to Barkley Lake, the Eastern side of the Land Between the Lakes.
This was our second time in Nashville, so we did more of a good thing—listening to bands every night on neon-lighted Broadway. |
We also celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary in Nashville with Looper friends at a fantastic French-inspired, white table cloth kind of restaurant.
We noticed many new buildings and construction sites in Nashville. We appreciated the contrast of the old brick versus the new, modern buildings. Nashville was booming, especially post-Covid. One local we met admitted he didn’t like the changes and said he didn’t recognize his Nashville any longer.
We waved “goodbye y’all” to Nashville and followed our trail back to Barkley Lake, up and over the Land Between the Lakes to Kentucky Lake. Down we cruised on the Tennessee River.
Our next leg covers a side trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Trips to a grocery store, via courtesy cars at marinas, felt like a cultural expedition. For example, in a freezer that featured shrimp and catfish there was also a large selection of alligator. We also saw enormous sections for BBQ sauces, rubs, hot sauces and something new to me: Chow-Chow. |
FOOTNOTES FOR FUN FACT FANS
1) St. Louis has no public marina, so there were no places for recreational boaters to tie up. We imagined that St. Louis couldn’t maintain an exposed, recreational boater marina. They have no natural protection from the powerful, rising, and dropping Mississippi River.
2) I was surprised to learn:
- It’s made of steel with only a slim bit of hidden concrete in the center of the spires. The curved spires were three sides—triangular, like a prism if it was straight.
- It’s designed to be hit by lightening. And, it can sway 18 inches.
- Innovative elevators take visitors to the top where there are small windows.
- It’s 63 stories tall.
Here are more fun facts:
https://www.gatewayarch.com/plan-your-visit/#frequently-asked-questions
3) It took about twenty years from an organized effort to revitalize the waterfront to when the Arch was built.
4) No news on where we’re going to live after we finish The Loop. I’ll just say we are talking about somewhere on the West coast again. You may recall that we did The Great Reduction and sold our home. Still no regrets.