<– Day 4 – Thursday May 2: Old Friends | Day 6 – Friday May 4: Parker To the Rescue! –>

I think she’s forgotten all about the purse … someone is having a good day!

Day 5: We drove from Warrensburg, Missouri, to Paducah, Kentucky, spending most of the day driving in the rain.

Day 5: Warrensburg to Paducah

We began the day saying our farewells to Dale and Edith, Ann’s friends from her time living in Knob Noster and working at Whiteman with Dale. They hadn’t seen each other in two decades, so it was an all too short stay. Hopefully we’ll return some day.

We’d barely begun our drive when the rain began to fall. For the next five hours it wavered between sprinkles and pouring. Dale and Edith had recommended that we stop at the Osceola Cheese outlet on our drive south. We like cheese, so it was a pretty easy sell.

Driving south on highway 13, it wasn’t easy to miss, as a series of billboards made it clear that we shouldn’t pass it up! Thankfully, though it was 8:45, they were already open!

Inside, the story was a mix of cheese, food, and nick-knacks. The place offered a wide array of cheeses (275 types according to them … we did not take the time to count) and samples of many. A person could fill up just on the samples!

Lots of cheese to sample in the little containers.

Loaded up with some new cheese and spicy pork rinds, we left the Osceola Cheese store and began a rainy drive south. Along the way we spotted billboards for the Fantastic Caverns tour. I knew about the tour, but didn’t think we had time to stop there, which is too bad as there is a CJ-2A in the visitor’s center. You can learn more about the cavern’s jeep in this post (and see the post’s comments) and this post.

We saw a variety of these billboards on our drive south on Highway 13.

The rain continued as we turned east toward our goal of Paducah. Along the way, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are some very rural and remote areas in Missouri, especially in the Mark Twain National Forest (no cell coverage). There were so few cars, it felt like we had the forest to ourselves.

As we neared Paducah, Kentucky, the rain finally subsided. Our mission in Paducah was to visit the National Quilt Museum, which sounded like a pretty cool place. Now, I’m no quilter, but I quickly learned these were no ordinary quilts that you might see at your local fair. The museum owns something like 600 quilts and showcases others as well. Visitor’s aren’t allowed to take pics inside the gallery, but I’ve found some on the web. Here’s a photo of the beautiful foyer:

This was my favorite quilt:

There were several that looked more like paintings from far away like this:

The artistry of these varies to personal taste, some I like and some not so much, but the details of the creations are impressive. The use of fabric, colors, thread, silk, and other materials were amazing to examine up close. Ann enjoyed the quilts, but also felt a little intimidated by them. I told her I liked hers just the same.

Our last stop of the day was the flood wall (is that the proper term?) that bordered the Ohio river to the north of Paducah. Along the backside of the wall the city has added murals telling the history of the city. It was a great way to showcase events.

We stayed the night in Paducah. On Friday we are making our way farther south. We don’t know our destination just yet.

<– Day 4 – Thursday May 2: Old Friends | Day 6 – Friday May 4: Parker To the Rescue! –>