Road Trip to Paducah and Back Again

Early on Wednesday morning, my friend, Sue, & I headed south to Paducah.  (In case you are not in the know, that is Quilt City, USA and home of the AQS quilt show last week!)

Here is the bridge across the Ohio River… exciting that it is the Ohio River from whence my roots come and that this is the border into Kentucky and into Paducah!!  We’ve arrived!!

And because I’m terrified of bridges, this is the view of the river with no one looking through the viewfinder/at the screen to see if there is anything good to photograh…..

We had a wonderful trip down, thanks to Sue being an excellent and tireless driver!!

We arrived at the show area and decided to try street parking for free before submitting to the $5 convention center parking for just a few hours.   BINGO!!  We landed a large spot JUST across the street from the main convention center.  There were 2 cars closer than us besides the special handicap/vendor parking lot.  Beautiful!!  It was just 2 p.m. and the show was open until 6.  Perfect!

After some browsing in the first vendor hall, where Elaine was working, Sue was able to enjoy an unexpected visit with her brother & some family and I headed to our perfect place for rest!   Elaine is a long-time friend and a DEEElightful hostess!!

And so the day continued… it was warm… low 80’s!!! … and the sun peeked out more often than not the rest of the day.

And so the week continued…. it was warm, topping the low 90’s on Thursday (ahhhh….) lots of sunshine and just a 15 minute thundershower on Friday afternoon.   We were quite happy in our sandals and light sleeves… all unnecessary here at home still.

I took this photo during our lunch on Thursday.  We both liked the idea of sitting in the sun so found a piece of cement to hold us up and soaked up some rays!!  A local paper photographer came by to photograph our feet for the paper but we were never published.  

We headed home on Saturday morning.  We figured our credit cards were as tired as our feet!  About 1 1/2 hours into our leisurely drive, I noticed a lot of black smoke.  Not much farther down the road, we had this!

Yes, Sue is driving right now… I’m shooting photos out the window!

At least the driver got off the road and was able to unhook the cab so as to keep that safe.

And then I took this one with my phone and QUICKLY (but not fast enough!) closed the window from the heat & smoke!!  Oh, how dumb of me!! 😦  Sue is such a good sport!!  And seriously, I could feel the heat on my face for another 30 minutes.

We were only passing by as no one was there yet with flashing lights.  We could have been sitting for hours!! 😦   Another 1/2 mile down the road, the state trooper was coming and another mile was the first fire truck.  Poor driver. 😦

We continued safely and arrived home at 3.  Seriously, I was in bed at 3:10 and probably asleep before the clock hit 3:11.   Up in an hour for early church and the weekend at home continued at full-speed.

Yes, I will show you quilts and my loot in the next few posts!  🙂

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April Guild

These are the only photos I took during the program but I like this simple layout and she had the smaller ones for examples in other colors.  Love the little pinwheels in the sashings!   I think I’ll work on this pattern …. another day!  😉

From show & tell —

Her (in turquoise) SECOND Farmer’s Wife quilt in less than 12 months (can we say high-strung??).  This is from fabrics given to her when someone’s (M. W-F.) mother died.  The quilt is for the granddaughter of the lady that died.  How sweet is that????  I love this!  The back has a LARGE applique design, too.  Beautiful!   And I know the daughter who gave the fabrics from church.  🙂

In lieu of a tshirt quilt, Miss InPink, was asked to make a quilt from…

dance costumes!!

OIY!!!

And then cranked out this stunner in just a few weeks!!  The costume pieces are shiny & glittery.  We all loved the fabrics she added.  It is sooo pretty!!

And this old top, recently quilted…. we were all gasping….

and then she said the strip-pieced sections are cheater-cloth!!  None of us believed it.  Very pretty!!

Hoping to have an online garage sale of stuff from my sewing room this weekend.   Stay tuned!! 😉

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The Next Step

This week we went to JP’s future college to get his ID and register for classes!  Yippee!!  We had visited the campus in November during the first 4″ snow storm of the season.  Most of our tour was hustling from one building to the next and then the guide would tell us what we just passed.  Of course, we were huddled under hoods and could barely see so it was sort of pointless.

I was SURE that an April appointment for classes would net us a better view.  However, that morning we awoke to clouds & rain!!  Thankfully by the time we got to campus for the 2:00 appointment, it was dry.  Cold.  But dry.

Of course we TOTALLY missed seeing the “M” on the hill on our first visit so we watched for it this time.  Well, no wonder it was miles past the level of visibility back in November.  We tried to be impressed with finding the “M” this time.  🙂

I was again impressed with how nice everyone on campus is to us.  Every call I’ve made with “dumb” questions has been answered kindly and with respect.  Our first 4 encounters this day were with student workers.  All were polite and helped us find our way with a smile!

JP had his photo taken for a Student ID and then moved on to set up his computer account.  The last stop was to meet with the General Engineering advisor.   Either it is the way it works or because the advisor had another appointment at the same time but it was all very fast and thorough.   He already had gone over JP’s transfer credits and had a semester schedule planned out.  We asked a few questions and were done.  The secretary walked JP through the registration process on the office computer.  Only twice did they question which name was his last name.  I’m sure as a male he’ll have this issue much more than K & I struggle with it.

I really like this campus and town.  Small and normal.  🙂  Just 1 1/2 hours for us and only 5 stoplights (not many) the whole way!  Such a change from the last college where we drove back & forth!

Between getting his ID and computer account we had an extra 15 mins so I shopped in the bookstore for my supportive shirts.  (K’s school didn’t have a mascot or teams or college wear.)   I now will proudly wear my UWP fleece and Platteville sweatshirt!  The first of many, I suppose.

JP’s classes all meet in the mornings so he will have the afternoons & evenings free.   He will have Chemistry for Engineers, Economics for Engineers, C++ Programming, Calculus, and an Electrical Engineering Lab.  Sounds right up his alley!  He isn’t too thrilled with going back to classes but knows it is necessary.  He just loves his current job & boss and will be sad to leave that for school.

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