When we looked at where we would be docking on this trip, I was thrilled that one stop would be Paducah. I told Rich I had to have one full day here because I was going to the National Quilt Museum. If you’re a quilter, you will understand why this is an important stop!
Yesterday I discovered that the wife of the couple that we had been traveling with was interested in going to the museum also. The museum was only 3 blocks from the boat dock, so by 10:20 this morning we were at the museum. We spent over 2 hours oohing and aahing at phenomenal quilts and telling each other we could never do things that intricate or artistic. Here are just a few of the quilts that amazed us –
This is just a small portion of the quilt, which measures 17” x 19” – note in the description that it has 6580 pieces in it!
After the quilt museum we met our husbands at a deli just two blocks away for great sandwiches. Rich had read some reviews that talked about the Reuben there – it sounded like the reubens we remembered from growing up in Omaha, the home of the Reuben. Unfortunately they had run out of thousand island dressing so they couldn’t make reubens. How can that be??? There was a bakery connected with it so I had to buy some dark rye bread and bagels – won’t take the place of a Reuben, but still tasty.
The historic district of Paducah is quite interesting – everywhere we turned there was a plaque commemorating some historic site or event. We wandered around for a short time – it was too hot and humid to walk around for very long. Along the riverfront is a long concrete wall with murals depicting the history of the area, beautifully done, with plaques under each describing the event on the mural.
It’s probably hard to read, but the plaque says the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant is the nation’s only uranium enrichment facility – who knew this? It’s a global supplier of enriched uranium for electricity production.
As we walked along the riverfront we saw the Queen of Mississippi, a paddlewheeler from American Cruise Lines. It had docked for several hours for the guests to tour the Paducah area and also to take on fuel and water.
When we got back to the dock we hung out there for a short time getting fuel and helping some other Loopers just coming in to get their boats docked. Because of the river current it can be tricky to get a boat in so everyone tries to lend a hand. Then it was inside for some air-conditioned comfort! After our giant lunch we realized we weren’t hungry for dinner so the rest of the evening was spent inside just relaxing.
Sunset in Paducah – note the green Holiday Inn sign on the upper left side.