report from the road: The Ozarks in Missouri

This bridge near Cairo remained open over the Mississippi River. The other
bridge that GPS wanted to take us across was even more narrow than this.

The Mississippi River flooding at Cairo this spring brought many problems, including a bridge closure and long, out-of-the-way detours from Paducah, Kentucky, to Cairo, Illinois. We were glad for the excellent directions from the owner of Fern Lake RV Park in Paduca. She helped us route our drive to Cairo on county roads. From Cairo we drove to Rogersville, Missouri, our next campsite. We were on the edge of our seats the first 70 miles. Then we relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful ride through the Ozarks on US-60 W.

Today we had an aha! moment when we decided to choose US highway routes instead of the interstate system whenever feasible. Pros include: we can see the towns and the countryside; the road surface is generally much smoother than the surfaces of interstate highways; traffic is usually lighter.

Cons include: sometimes the road is narrow; a motorhome with a towed vehicle needs to stay on the designated truck route--this is very difficult to follow in some towns. There are stop lights on state routes, i.e., when the driver of a 44,000-lb vehicle traveling 55/60 mph sees the sign indicating traffic signal ahead, that driver begins to slow down no matter what color the light is.

After we crossed the bridge and entered Illinois, we began our US highways odyssey.