Paducah

Getting here was an epic journey. I opted to take the 4:30 pm flight into Memphis. Since there doesn't seem to be direct flights to Paducah the next leg of the journey was on a small propeller plane with worn leather seats. It was old and rattled like a SEPTA EL train! As we got on the plane the sun was going down. By the time we took off it was dark. The big plane had rolled through turbulance on the way across the country. We felt every air current on the small plane.

My seat companion was a wonderful distraction. Her name was Jane Kirkpatrick. She is an author and was visiting the quilt festival on a tour to promote her new book. Called Aurora, it is part of a series based on the life of Emma Wagner Giesy who helped found a Utopian community in the Pacific Northwest during the 1850s. Some of her quilts have survived.

Jane also has a pilot's license. She is multitalented and multifacted and it was delightful to meet her.

The third and final part of the trip was renting a car, getting lost several times, arriving at the wrong motel twice and eventually, finding my way to the room waiting for me. This morning I realized that the hotel is directly on the shore of the Ohio River. The river is enormously, hughly wide here. The land makes way for it so that you are aware by the flatness and the bogs that something is coming before you see it. Like saltmarshes signal the ocean. Working ships and barges float on it. They are far enough away that they look small.

The hour time difference helped me get to the show early.

I did take some pictures. Many did not come out well. I'll try again tomorrow. I wish I understood more about why some pictures work and some don't!