Wow… what a great visit to Hickman. After the morning rain we packed the wagon and grocery bags and headed off on our adventure for the rest of the day.   I cannot believe just in this town alone our very first stop on the lower Mississippi what we would have missed  by not traveling this area. Last night the town people were taken by surprised when we anchored.. Not just kidding. Seriously, The American Queen made her first stop here. It was a view to see one local told us. They really want to bring there town back alive again. Restoring the water front is a great start. I guess one of the crewmembers had to have stiches’ removed.  One of the locals offered to take them to the doctors.

It’s funny to see so many cars drive down to the launch area to check the anchorage area. Bryce went to shore first thing Sunday morning to put out trash in the trash bin. I was irritated with him. He forgot to take his phone with him and a storm was brewing. There was a green pickup truck near the trash cans. I went down below to retrieve the binocular so I could see what was going on. I was gone only seconds… Criminal Minds came into my thoughts. When I looked through the binoculars Bryce and the truck were gone.  The only thing on shore was the jet-ski! I waited and waited…What seem like an eternity. The storm hit; I had to get the hatches closed on deck. It was raining so hard and the wind was howling.  I could hardly see the shoreline and it was close by. Crap, will the wind will blow the jet-ski away? I thought.

  I will go do dishes. That will help take my mind off the disappearance of my husband!!!! A while later I heard the jet-ski.. If looks could kill… Then he came on board with a cheesy smile and bubbly happiness. I wanted to strangle him for making me worry and think that a serial killer might have taken him.   His joy of meeting this wonderful person took the anger out of me. I sat and listened to his story.   He was greeted by Mr. Gerald Harris (Bryce hopes the name is correct).  Gerald took Bryce on a tour of the town.  He showed Bryce where the supermarket, gas station  liquor store were.  It turns out that Gerald owns an engine repair facility and works on all types of gas and diesel engines.  He mentioned that back in the days, power boats used to come up to shore to get their engines repaired.

It turns out that Hickman is pretty much a full service stop for boaters.  They have a great Grocery store, nice big Marathon gas station with diesel, completely stocked liquor store (no booze on Sunday though), water is available at a spigot in the park and two trash barrels near the boat launch.  There are two restaurants in town, but closed on Sunday.

Bryce pulling the wagon for us. Off to collect a few supplies.

Look how big these Levy doors are.  These doors are closed during the spring floods.  Gerald Harris told Bryce that during the highest recorded flood, the water came within 3 feet of the top! I wore my rain suite. Radar showed more rain. 

OM…Gosh.. Look at this levy wall! It is beautiful. It goes for a few miles. In many slots there are hand panted Murals that tell the story of Hickman.  I have taken many pictures and I just have to show you a few. Maybe a bit more…LOL

Stepping through the gate door, I felt like we were stepping into history. This is the County Jail 1914.

Bryce wanted me to stand here so you cold see how big the individual murals are. These alone are worth a visit to Hickman KY.

My hippie is getting his hair cut..LOL

Coca-Cola was big in Hickman.

Gerald Harris’s brother worked for the Army Corp of Engineers on the Tow named “Mississippi”.

I was just asking Bryce if he thought the water freezes.  It seems at some time in the past, it has frozen.

It just looks like an amazing ghost town to me, that is so rich in history.   However, these buildings are home to new businesses.  It seems Hickman is going through a revitalization stage.

This is the Historic Town of Hickman. There are a few business coming back in.. 

I believe this is Einstein. As we started to walk up the street I noticed  this mural.

We followed the wall as much as we could till we had to make a turn to go up the road to the store.  Lots of individual murals to see.

Look.. It appears they still have or are bring back the local hardware store.  Just what we needed, but everything other then the grocery store, gas station and churches are closed on Sunday.

Apparently there was a large project by the Army Corp of Engineers here.  Much of Hickman sits high and dry, far out of the way of Mississippi flood waters.

This is the local Happy Spirit Store… Beer-Wine stop. They even have a drive through. LOL…  Dang forgot to get a picture of the Grocery store.  The Grocery store is 1.4 miles from the launch ramp.  The gas station is 0.2 miles further.  This liquor store is just before the grocery store.  For those interested, take the road up from the launch ramp to local 94.  Turn left on 94 about 1 mile to the 1099 junction.  Right on 1099 at the liquor store, you should see the grocery store.

Our walk back.. notice rain clothing is now off and turning hot.  Our poor little wagon is very full.  We had several offers to take us back; but I wanted the exercise.  Maybe Bryce would have wanted a ride; that wagon was hard to pull. I tried once . A lot of going to the store is up hill, but coming back only one steep hill. I think we have enough groceries.

On our way back I noticed a water-spigot… See on the starboard side.. We were so happy.  We needed to fill our water cans a few times to top off our water tanks.  We asked a few locals if they thought it would be ok to use this water.  They said, “Sure of course”.

This is our view from our anchorage too. What a great place.  This is one of the most protected anchorage we have stopped at in the rivers.

George was waiting patiently for our arrival back.  He chastised us for being gone so long.

I stayed back at the boat putting the groceries away and making dinner while Bryce did a few water runs.  We have two 6 gallon jugs to transport water.

This was the last trip in. Our daylight was slowly disappearing. I had to us a flash on the camera to capture my honey’s smile. 

This is the satellite view of our anchorage.  The blue dot is us. The entrance was 25 feet and all the way in. So lots of water.  We anchored in 16 feet.

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