We walked along the riverfront and chatted with several local walkers about the area’s attractions. The murals along the floodwall were beautiful. Each panel represented an element of Paducah’s history from settlements by native cultures, early European explorers, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the influence of railroads and steamships and the civil rights movement in the city. It was encouraging that we saw no graffiti or other vandalism on the murals. It appeared to us that the murals are touched up and maintained regularly.
Around 9 am Mary walked around the area before she went to the National Quilt Museum. As a quilter, she has wanted to visit this museum for many years. She photographed many of the quilts that interested her and learned about the quilt competitions. She learned that the maker of a winning quilt can choose to get the quilt returned or to give the quilt to the museum and accept a large cash prize. She was at the museum for over four hours before coming out to walk around the surrounding area in Paducah.
While Mary was at the museum, I drove to Blytheville, Arkansas. My motivation was to find geocaches in Arkansas since it was the only state in which I had not recorded geocache finds. I figured that my easiest and fastest way to log a geocache in the state was to go to the Welcome Center. I parked at the rest area and checked my GPS receiver which showed that I was very near the geocache hide. I looked out of the car window and spotted the tiny geocache container suspended in a small tree next to the car. I could have reached out of the window to get the geocache container. I signed the cache log then went to the rest area then made my way back to pick Mary up at the Quilt Museum.
On the drive back to Paducah, I wanted to avoid Interstate highways but to drive through part of the state included in the Jackson Purchase. In 1818, General Andrew Jackson and former Kentucky Governor, Isaac Shelby negotiated the purchase of land east of the Mississippi River with the Chickasaw Indians for the price of $200,000. Today this land makes up eight of Kentucky’s westernmost counties and is typically referred to as “The Purchase” region. This is the area where the New Madrid Earthquake rechanneled the Mississippi River to leave an area of Kentucky that 27 square miles in size that is surrounded by Missouri and Tennessee. This “Kentucky Bend” has a population of nine people.
I was struck by the topography and ecology of the area. It is very much a Delta environment with cypress swamps and river lowlands. The predominate animals that I saw along the road were armadillos.
I picked Mary up at the Quilt Museum around 2 pm then took her to Hancock’s of Paducah to look at quilt fabric and supplies. While she shopped, I sat on a bench near the front of the store which was clearly placed there for husbands to sit while their wives shopped. I chatted with several other old guys as I waited. One fellow whose wife was from California who was primarily in the area because his wife wanted to visit the Quilt Museum and to shop at this shop. She had been at the store area and purchased so much fabric that she took it back to their motel then returned to shop again this afternoon. Her husband, George, and I chatted for a long time and enjoyed each other’s company. I mentioned that we were considering dinner at Broussard’s Cajun Cuisine and he said that they may see us there.
After a short break at the room in the Super 8, we were hungry and went to dinner at Broussard’s Cajun Cuisine around 5:30. We started with a flight of Cajun stews to sample. We liked the etouffee and jambalaya but we both really liked the shrimp gumbo. I fully expected to get etouffee since that is my go-to choice when we go to Cajun restaurants. However, the gumbo was exceptional. The cook came out and chatted with us for a long time as we dined. As we were leaving, we saw George and his wife coming into the restaurant. We chatted with them and exchanged contact information before we left the restaurant.
Before we went to the motel, we drove out Jefferson Street in Paducah to see some of the monuments and statues in the median. Back at the Paducah Super 8, we did our evening language lessons then turned in.
