08-11-2020 - Atlanta to Paducah

After a great night’s sleep we’re up, organized, and out the door by just  little after nine!  The drive is lovely through north Georgia and Tennessee with not much traffic and blue skies.  After a couple of hours it was time for gas and some leg stretching.  Interestingly enough there was a tiny family cemetery right next to the Citgo station/convenience store!

                                                   Interesting graffiti in north Georgia!!

 

Back on the road we decide to begin “touristing” by getting off an exit in Nashville that boasted about the state capital and quickly found ourselves in the parking lot for the Nashville Farmers’ Market, adjacent to the Tennessee Bicentennial Capital Mall State Park!  It’s quite lovely and we found a shaded area in which to eat our ham and cheese sandwiches.  There was even a restroom!  There is a granite wall with quotations and factoids about Tennessee and in the before-times there was a section that contained dancing fountains complete with lights.

                                                      The Nash Trash musical comedy tour!

                                 I've never seen a pomegranate bonsai before! The young man has

                                                                  spent four years on it!

                                                          Slippery, just like a banana peel!

                                                   I love that there's a Langston Hughes quote!

                                                                     Tennessee's State Capital

 

At the farmers’ market we bought some okra to fry at Bonnie’s and some peaches and seedless blackberry jam.  There was a lovely plant nursery, too, but we didn’t think that was a good idea so early in the trip.  Only about ten percent of the stalls were open and there were signs everywhere about wearing your mask and social distancing, as well as advising that only credit cards would be accepted.  But our produce guy took cash anyway.

 

After what seemed no time at all we arrived in Paducah, Kentucky.  On our way to our hotel we passed the National Quilt Museum, which was our ultimate destination anyway, so we pulled in and it turns out that was a smart move.  There were so many beautiful pieces to ogle that we wound up closing the place!  If you're interested, there are a LOT more photos!  And there was one entire section devoted to social action causes and another devoted to Jazz.

                                                                Detail of the lemur's tail

                                                   It's called There's No Place Like Om!!

                                                                    And this one is made of WOOD!

Then it was on to the Holiday Inn Riverside.  We had already registered on line so there was little contact and we went up to our room to check Trip Advisor about a restaurant.

 

After some research and some computer catch-up we headed out to the Freight House, a local farm-to-table place that came highly recommended.  Along the way we walked along the river (actually it’s the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers) and checked out the mural wall.  Each panel commemorates some aspect of Paducah’s history and has it’s own plaque.

 

As for the restaurant, it took a little wandering and doubling back, as well as questioning of locals, but we finally found it and boy was it worth the effort!  For starters, all the beers are local!  Ginger had the Falls City Streetlamp porter and I had the Stiegl Radler Himbeere Raspberry.  So good!!  Then we split the marinated beets in herbed yogurt, the grilled Caesar salad, and the Hot Damn Hot Brown  (Sweet tea brined chicken, pork belly, parmesian potatoes and tomato.  OMG delicious!!  I’d be willing to stay another just to have it all again tomorrow night!  Instead, we’ll pass this way again on our way home!  Our waitress was delightful, always bringing enough plates for us to share easily, all the employees were masked and the customers were seated really far apart.  I never felt endangered in the slightest.

 

There are lots of little shops and art galleries and, unfortunately, empty store fronts in Paducah.  The busiest place seemed to the storefront selling trump merchandise.

By the way - we probably won’t have internet access for the next few days. I’ll catch up when I can!