A Day Close To The Trailer

After yesterday and our long round trip drive to the distillery we decided to take an easy day and hang out around the trailer.  The weather forecast was calling for showers throughout the region and there were a couple of things that needed to be done around Paducah.

We left this morning and drove downtown to the historic part of town.  At one time Paducah was a thriving metropolis.  Settled in 1815, and located at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers, and inhabited by both Native Americans and Immigrants who lived and traded together.  Steamboat traffic brought a thriving business atmosphere to the town and created a need for dry dock operations.  Soon the Illinois Central Railroad was doing business in Paducah due to the closeness to the coal reserves in Kentucky and Illinois.

In 1937 the Ohio river rose to over 50 feet above flood stage and caused major damage throughout the city.  The Army Corp of Engineers built a flood wall to replace the failed earthen levee.  An artist from Louisiana, Robert Dafford, designed and painted murals on the town side of the flood wall.  There are several panels depicting the history of the city.  Just a few of the many murals.

In 1948 Paducah was chosen for a new uranium enrichment plant.  The plant was done in 1952 and is currently operated by the U.S. Department of Energy.

In 1991 the National Quilt Museum was opened in downtown.  The museum annually attracts 40,000 quilters to the city and once a year they hold a large quilt meeting that is attended by folks from around the world.

The town is old and well kept in some areas.  Mia took me to several quilt stores and I patiently waited as she spent time looking at each store.  Finally the rain started.  With some errands remaining we had a quick lunch at Steak n Shake and proceeded to finish our errands and then headed back to the trailer.  I see now why there are flash floods here.  The rain comes down quickly and in massive amounts.  Generally not long enough to flood but you keep wondering as you try to navigate your way through.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nicer so we are thinking about taking another road trip.  Not as far as Tuesday but maybe more interesting.  We shall see.

Hope all is well and thanks for stopping by.

A Very Busy Day

Mia and I got up early this morning to take a fairly long day trip from our KOA in Paducah to the Makers Mark Distillery in Loretto, three hundred and eighty some miles round trip.  It was worth every minute of the several hours it took us to come and go.    Interstate 69 is under construction here in Kentucky as the highway base is being removed and repaved so there are several occasions along the way when the highway drops to 45 mph and one lane.  Traffic cones are our new friends.

While on the subject of traffic, driving and the differences between the South and up North where we come from, I offer the following observations.  In the Northwest we have signs that warn us of impeding ice conditions on bridge surfaces.

Here in the south the warning is a little different.

Another one is the issue of fallen rocks verses falling rocks.  In the North we seem to be concerned with rocks falling on us.

Here in the South they seem more concerned with the rocks that have already fallen.

Enough of that.

We spent the day at the Distillery.  We took the tour with Aggie who filled us with so much information that we walked into the tasting room on sensory overload.  The property is beautiful and the facilities are fantastic and this small distillery now supplies all 50 states and a good portion of the rest of the world with their product, all from this one location.

After the tour we went to the tasting room for a lesson in tasting the good stuff.  Our tour guide taught us to look, smell and taste four different bourbons that come from their operation.

In the tasting room we found four glasses with different forms of Makers Mark.  The first one on the left is something called Maker's White.  Definitely a non-mature Bourbon that burns on contact.  High volumes of alcohol.  Makers Mark Fully Mature is the finished product made after the Maker's White has sat in charred oak barrels for seven years.  A very good bourbon that smells of caramel and vanilla and tastes very sweet unlike most other bourbon that I can recall tasting.  The newest Maker's Mark is 46 and it is without a doubt my favorite.  Sweet and tasty developed by the son of the original owner before he retired so that he would leave his mark on the company.  The last glass is Maker's Mark Cask Strength and I really didn't care for it.

Mia and I thoroughly enjoyed our day at the distillery.

While working with the folks at Carter Subaru I met a gentleman named Eddy who was an excellent parts counter person.  Today on the way back to the trailer, I found out that Eddy has a town named after him.

That's it, all I've got.  Hope all is well and thanks for stopping by.

Relaxing Day

I am spending a relaxing day at the trailer after a couple of long days of driving.  We left Granger, Indiana on Friday heading south through Illinois to Paducah, Kentucky home of the National Quilt Museum.  As you who read the blog already know, Mia is a huge quilter and loves everything to do with quilting.  She doesn't seem to think she will be gone long but I expect she might spend more time than she has indicated.  Just like the Ford Museum, it looks like a fantastic place.

It is overcast with the sounds of thunder in the distance every now and then.  We expect temperatures into the eighties today with higher humidity which makes things a bit uncomfortable.  The forecast is calling for decreasing temperatures tonight and we hope the humid conditions go down as well.  We haven't had any really hot weather here in the east but temperatures in the eighties and high humidity are much more uncomfortable than nineties and no humidity.  Once again, we haven't been able to find the replacement circuit breaker for the in house panel so we don't use the air conditioner.  I will likely deal with it when we get home.

Speaking of home, we have decided to spend the next few days here in Paducah and then move on after the Memorial Day Holiday.  Mia ordered some prescriptions from the pharmacy to be shipped here so we may have to stay a bit longer if they don't show by the end of the week.  Then it is on to Williamsburg, nearly eight hundred miles from here.  We will visit Willamsburg and Jamestown before heading north to Monticello and Mt. Vernon where we hope to meet up with Mia's niece.  At that point we will be almost 2900 miles from home and both of us are ready to head back.  So sometime in mid-June, I expect we will be making the trip back across the country to home.

I have to take the Honey for a walk.  Hope all is well and thanks for stopping by.

Snafu Resolved

We got back to South Bend, Indiana rather early today and dropped by the post office and found my package of medications waiting in the general delivery bin as promised by the gal I spoke to the other day.  I was relieved to get them as I am nearly out of one of them.

One hundred and ninety seven miles is no big deal in one day but when you add in mistakes made during the travel (not following the princesses directions) you end up adding another twenty five miles.  The good news, my error create a situation for Mia to return to a store in Shipshewana, Indiana so she could get some really cheap muslim cloth.

We are parked at the KOA in Granger, Indiana and we will start our trek to Paducah, Kentucky tomorrow.  It appears it is only four hundred and forty some miles to our destination so I have called the park there and arranged to arrive a day early, Sunday.  Don't know where we will be tomorrow so there may not be an blog post for a couple of days.

Looking forward to taking some day trips.  They might be long day trips.

After we spend our nine days relaxing in Paducah, the holiday will have come and gone.  I will arrange for someplace to stay at or near Williamsburg, Virginia so we can enjoy some more colonial history.  Then we will move to Monticello and on to Mt. Vernon.

Hope everything is well and thanks for stopping by.

The Henry Ford And A Minor Snafu

Yesterday I was on my own as I left Mia and Honey at the trailer and took off down the road to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.  This is one of the place that I have always wanted to go and yesterday I found out just how big and full this place actually is.  You might be suspecting nothing but Ford or lots of cars and the history of the automobile.  Well you get that and a whole lot more.  In fact, there is just too much sensory input to handle in one day.  I had a voucher that would let me into two of the the four areas that are offered.

You can visit the Henry Ford Museum full of all kinds of history from automobiles to baby rattles.  You can walk through the 200 acre Greenfield Village that will send you back into the days of yesteryear to see John Adams home, Henry Ford's home, Booker T Washington's cabin, sawmills, early farms, textile plants, pottery plants, and an old tavern with communal seating for lunch.  Then there is the Ford Rouge Factory Tour where the new aluminum skinned Ford F-150 truck is assembled.  Finally you could visit the IMAX theater to watch any of the many 2D and 3D material available.

I chose the Museum and Greenfield Village and neither was a disappointment.  There is so much to see in the museum and I took some pictures.  I can't even begin to explain the overwhelming sensory input as you walk thru this place and look at the displays.  History is presented in form and word.  For example, one section has to do with struggles of America and its populations struggles for freedom and equality.  Starting with the Revolutionary War and taking you to Abe Lincoln and the struggle for freedom from slavery.  Follow all that up with a look into the fight for women's rights and their vote.  Then comes the struggle for civil rights and Rosa Parks famous refusal to change her seat on the bus for a white person.

The actual bus.

Here are some other things that I photographed in the museum.

Teddy Roosevelt's Limo

Looked brand new

Willys was King

Even has Chevrolet

Model T in pieces...there aren't many

Steam Power

Old Corn Harvester

Modern kitchen

Not so modern kitchen

Cycle car

A Model T Tent Camper

Lots of steam

Steam powered shop

Allegheny Locomotive only one left and the largest every built

Then on to Greenfield Village and I'll just let the pictures show you.

Beautiful gardens

Real Steam Locomotives

Farm Yards

Henry Fords Boyhood Home

Ford's Original shop

Restored and Installed by Henry Ford

The original shop that Ford his first car

A small version of the original Ford Plant

Wright Brothers Shop

Jewelry Store

I had a ball and wish I could have spent even more time wandering about these displays of history.

We have run into a couple of snafu lately.  Last week I ordered medication from my hometown pharmacy to sent general delivery to a post office in South Bend.  Unfortunately the pharmacy sent it via U.P.S. instead of U.S.P.S.  It didn't show up in time for me to pick them up when we were in Granger earlier this week.  So it is back to Granger to visit the South Bend post office as they called and told me that the package arrived.  So tomorrow we head back to the South Bend area.

The other little snafu has to do with being retired and not realizing what time it is.  It seems a holiday is looming ahead and we didn't think about it until just yesterday.  Try to find a place to park for Memorial Day Weekend a week before the holiday.  Especially if you decide to go somewhere popular.  We were scheduled to be in the Washington DC area but there are no parks available so we are changing our plans and heading south to Paducah, Kentucky.  We will arrive next Monday and stay until June 2nd when we will reverse our direction and head east to the DC/Baltimore area.

Hope all is well and thanks for stopping by.