Day 57: R 11/8- The Big River

We were in for a big day, and one of the last major transitions on the river. The Upper Mississippi River runs to mile 0 at the confluence with the Ohio River. The count then resets at 953 and runs to 0 at the Gulf of Mexico. We had toyed with the idea of stopping at Cairo, IL for supplies, which is the southernmost point of IL, but decided against it because we could only access the town from the Ohio river side. Seeing how the Ohio is actually bigger than the Mississippi at their joining, we had no desire to paddle up it.
We decided to head to Wickliffe, KY instead. It's a tiny town on the outside of a bend just a mile or so from the confluence. As we sat at a sandbar and looked up both rivers, we could see stacks of barges and tugs at the intersection. The town front itself was covered with them and we couldn't even see the ramp that the maps had indicated. But, we chanced it and booked it across as fast as we could. As the two rivers meet they become a swirling mess, conveniently right along the bend at Wickliffe. It was a bit of a struggle getting to the ramp, but we ended up timing it well and sliding in with no trouble.
We walked about 2 miles to PeeDee's food mart, but it ended up being little more than a gas station. Luckily there was a dollar general across the street that had what we needed. We even got a couple of Snickers ice cream bar as a treat.
By the time we got back to the boat we were running out of daylight. We grabbed the phones from where they had been charging, thankful they had not been stolen, and refilled our water. As we pushed off three guy were putting in their fishing boat. We were already caught by the current, so we couldn't really chat, but we said hi and they asked where we headed and shouted a good luck.
We only went across the river and about a mile down before stopping for the night. The fishermen came by as we were setting up to say hi and see what we were up to. They were out checking their trot lines and were real nice. They gave us some tips about the channel asked a few questions and were off before dark. We only made about 20 for the day, but we had finally made it to 'the big river'!