11 October 2014

Yesterday was a quiet day doing some odds and ends around the boat, a few loads of laundry and doing some nap therapy. Susan did a spa day and I was able to get my beard trimmed. This is one of the nicest marina’s we’ve been to.

The high point of the day was Docktails with all the loopers, some from the flotilla, some of them new arrivals. We met a new boat crew that will be starting out next summer from their home in Alabama. They were in the process of taking their boat home, so had to go to the Ohio and then down the Mississippi. They were in a good timing window, weather should be good and the stuff in the water is down.

We were on the dock in front of Seaveyor, they made burgers for everyone. Other loopers brought things to eat, we had a ton of food. Susan made her cornbread that uses a can of creamed corn as the liquid part of the recipe. It makes it moist and delicious.

Saturday we went to Enterprise and got a car for the weekend to explore Paducah and later on Nashville.

Our first stop was the National Quilt Museum. They have over 500 quilts in their collection and have two wings that hold traveling collections. I grew up with quilts being used for warmth and having very simple designs on them. Living in Dover, most of the Amish quilts were also of that style. The quilts here were eye opening.

First was the level of stitching in the piece assembly and in the quilting. Thousands of tiny, even, perfect stitches, no puckers, no uneven seams. Wow. Second was the huge variety of designs and colors. Yes, some were the simple designs that I was familiar with, but there were hundreds of different patterns. Pretty much anything you could think of doing with fabric was represented.

I’d love to be able to show pictures, but since the quilters own the copyright on their designs, the museum does not allow photographs. The best I can do is the museum URL “http://www.quiltmuseum.org/” they do have some pictures. Presently on their front page is the “Beatles Quilt”, a homage to the band. There is something from every album and squares for each of the band members.

My favorite quilt was of a moose in the woods. When she finished assembling the top, she quilted it with the selvage side out. This added lots of texture to the finished quilt. From a distance it looked as if there was real fur on the moose.

Next was the Riverfron Maritime museum. Paducah had a tremendous flood in 1937 and the Maritime museum has a great set of displays showing the downtown area under 10 feet of water. All of the residents of the town were displaced for three weeks in February before the water receded enough for them to return.

Also at the museum is a large, multiple screen boat simulator. I had a chance to try driving a tow boat, and of course I managed to crash into a pleasure craft that was coming up the river. They also have a small Coast Guard Cutter that is much much easier to drive.

We had an early dinner with new boat friends Todd and Debbie from Seaveyor (they had been our hosts for Docktails the night before). We had “southern style tamales” which means rather than being cooked in corn husks, they are steamed in waxed paper. A new low for food on our trip. But the company was great, they are very nice people.

Since the marina is in a dry county, we stocked up on wine and beer on the way home. I thought Canada had been expensive, but when you are one of the few beverage stores on the county line it looked like some price gouging was in action. But, like the stores in Canada, they had a pretty decent selection so we were good to go.

We missed out on the Civil War and train museums. Both were highly recommended by other loopers and people in the town. Maybe on our next loop we will get a chance to see them.