Road to Paducah:

 I have been thinking and talking about a trip to Paducah Kentucky for a few years now.  After Tokyo, Houston, and Lincoln, this trip was designed to pretty much finish up my "bucket list" for quilt shows and museums, though (don't tell Roger) I am sure there will be more added on in the future.  We had talked about flying to Nashville and renting a car from there, but when all was said and done, we thought a road trip was the best way to accomplish this "quest". We headed east through the Rocky Mountains, above, and spent our first night in Denver Colorado.

It had been years since I was last there and we spent a full morning exploring the Denver Art Museum situated in the old section of down town and next the State Capital.  Through gallery after gallery we saw some of the best of the best in Western, European, and Asian art.   As you can see by the photos, we picked not only perfect weather but a definite non-tourist time of the year to drive.  Going across country in early May makes it just about perfect.

After leaving Denver we crossed the rolling high plains of Colorado and moved into the flats of Kansas.  We had lived in Wichita for a couple of years when the kids were young, but we opted to bypass it and head straight to Kansas City.  Not much to see and so no photos, though they are hard to take when Roger is in drive mode!

 Missouri was the next state we crossed into.  For those into traditional quilting, Jenny Dolan and the Missouri Start Quilt Company, are well known.  It is headquartered in Hamilton Missouri, not far north of Kansas City and so an easy stop.  While I toured the store, Roger sat at a shaded table and had an ice cream cone.  Though I never saw Jenny (darn!) it was a fun couple of hours.

Some of my ancestors lived in Missouri during the early 1800's before moving up to Nauvoo,  Illinois and then on to Utah as pioneers with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Far West, a very quiet and tranquil farm community was just down the road from Hamilton and became a quick side trip to visit a site where they had lived.  We then decided that instead of staying on the main highways, we would wander the country roads through Missouri heading towards the Ozarks and on to Kentucky.  Absolutely beautiful country in the early spring.

 Welcome to Paducah Kentucky!  It sits on the confluence  of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers and has a history dating back to before the Revolutionary War.  The National Quilt Museum is situated next to the river and presented an afternoon and then morning of quilt envy.  We had missed the big quilt show by a week and that was our intention.  Thirty five thousand women swarming the venues and side streets was not something that I, let alone Roger, was looking forward to.  This way, a week later, we had the quiet and the winning quilts to view in the museum.  No photos were allowed, so sorry.  Just know it was "quilt envy".

Back on the Road and driving through St. Louis Missouri on the way to Lincoln Nebraska.  Below is the St. Louis Arch.  We didn't stop this time, but remember taking all of the kids up to the top on one of our trips back home to Utah from New York.  Great view from the top!

 Lincoln Nebraska and the International Quilt Study Museum was up next.  I was able to make a quick tour of it while Roger read in the car.  It hadn't changed much from our last our visit, with interesting quilts from an historical perspective on display.  Luckily for me, they were also having an exhibit of Victory Finley Wolf quilts in a side room.  She does amazing work and this exhibit made the trip to Lincoln for me.

From Lincoln, it was a pretty straight forward drive home.  We drove through Nebraska, missing a tornado warning by a hundred miles, and on through Wyoming and back to Utah.  The weather towards the end was rainy and threatening, but with near empty roads, almost a nice change.