It only took me--- how long? over a month to write part 2. I blame it on working night shift. I don't think I'll ever get used to these hours.
But I vaguely remember going to Paducah recently. :)
On day 2, I was so sleepy when my alarm went off in the hotel (see comment about night shift). I knew there were a lot of places I still wanted to visit before I hit the road again. I got up. I made coffee. I fell asleep again. My alarm went off again. I got up. I made coffee. I took a shower and made friends with the housekeeper who was knocking on my door. I'm sure she was checking to make sure I was okay. Or maybe she just wanted to clean the room. Due to the language barrier, I couldn't be sure. Through hand gestures I finagled more coffee from her.
After finally feeling human, packing and re-loading the car, I was off again, very much later than I had planned. But since part of the plan was catching up on sleep, I guess I was still on track!
First stop was Ephemera Paducah. This is a little shop that sells mixed media art supplies as well as vintage goodies, and regularly hosts some very talented nationally known artists. I would love to attend some of the workshops there. .
My pictures really don't do it justice, but I was on a shopping mission. There were lots of cool things all around the store.
This old ledger was huge! I probably could not even have lifted it to look at it!
On the right below is what I refer to as the Tower of Stencils. You can't tell just how many stencils there are, mostly on the back side of the tower. The only reason I didn't buy more stencils than I did is that I already had most of them! There were all the latest art supplies from Tim Holtz, Dina Wakley, and Dyan Reavley. The owner, Kristin, could not have been nicer.
When I left there, I noticed all the wonderful Victorian homes along the street. This big yellow house was right next door and undergoing some renovations.
I headed toward the river, but I was also looking left and right at the homes. I wanted to take pictures of everything, but at the same time didn't want to linger too long. I should have spent more time looking straight ahead, as a lot of the streets were one-way and I was so busy looking at houses, I almost turned the wrong way down a one-way street. That made me stop looking at houses and pay attention to my driving!
I made my way down to the center of town which was along the riverfront. One of the places I had planned to visit was the National Quilt Museum. But that has to wait for another visit as there wouldn't be time. It has become a big claim to fame for this little town, and they have an annual Quilt Festival. It has spurred a growth of new hotels in the area. The one I stayed in was new, and my room had a full size kitchen and 2 queen size beds, for only $72 per night. That is unheard of. I'm sure it's more during Quilt Week, but I'd stay there again in a heartbeat.
And there is the river, where the Tennessee River meets the Ohio River. If it looks cold, it was. It was below average temperature for late March/early April. Wind was blowing off the river and I was quite cold!
There is a very long flood wall along the river, and each concrete panel is painted with a mural. it is quite impressive. Another time (on a warmer day), I will take the time to study each one and read each plaque in front of it.
There is a steam train down at the far end of the mural wall. There is a large parking lot across from the wall, which is very convenient to the riverbank and also downtown. This was painted on the street, but is no longer legible. Something about being careful what you put in there as it drains to the river.
As I drove out of town, other things caught my eye, like this large painted butterfly on the side of a building...
... and this painted honey advertisement.
One of the things I had envisioned myself doing before my trip was sitting at a coffee shop and sketching some of the old buildings in Paducah. I didn't have time to sit outside at a coffee shop plus it was too cold anyway. I had scouted buildings on google earth before I left home. I had practiced sketching a couple of them, so I cheated. When driving around, I found a church I had sketched at home, and held up my sketch. I'll pretend I had a lazy coffee on a sunny day while sketching it.
There were lots of interesting buildings that require further exploration. And I was surprised at the number of antique malls. One could spend at least 2 days just going through those! But I was off on the road again before it got too late in the day. Headed south, to see my family!
