Whew -- The Show Me State

Well, here we are in Ozark, Missouri -- just about 10 miles north of Branson -- the Las Vegas for old folks! We hope to take in an afternoon show on "the strip" before we head back north and west.

Dee came over for breakfast yesterday, and we had a good last visit. How I hated to leave. The little Suzuki, packed to the gunwales with shopping, headed out bravely for its second cross country trip in a month. We decided to take the scenic route for the first part of the trip, and I'm so glad we did. The scenery between Pine Knot and Glasgow was glorious. Much of the trip saw bright fall colours and rocky outcroppings interspersed with biscuit shaped hills and green and brown fields. Along the road past Marrowbone, Summer Shade, Winter Shade, and Eighty Eight, we saw just a bit of the burnished copper and brass coloured hills that I remember seeing in the Ozarks some 13 years ago. Once we reached Glasgow, however, we were pretty much past any colour of any note. I think it is a combination of the trees and terrain of the area and being just a bit later further west. It was November when I made that trip through the Ozarks.

As we drove along, however, and calculated the time required to complete the scenic route for the rest of the way, we decided to let Susan and Tom-Tom (apologies to Tom Hall) take us the rest of the way to Paducah. We cut almost an hour off our trip by doing so, and we arrived in Paducah shortly after lunch. We "gained"an hour because we are now in Central time.

The quilt museum at Paducah is spectacular. While I'm certainly no quilter, I was stunned by the skill and artistry that clearly went into producing all the gorgeous quilts shown in the museum. I can't even begin to describe the wide variety, the huge array of colour, and the stories and ideas wrapped up in the designs. Perhaps the ones that staggered my imagination the most, however, were the miniatures. They were mayber 12 to 18 inches square, and still contained all the complex piecing found on the large quilts. There was a double wedding ring sampler in which the little squares were less than 1/4 inch. As well, there were several other patterns that I recognized but don't know their names. I think there is something called a "Pineapple" -- with little increadingly larger triangles overlapping -- some of you quilters will no doubt know the pattern. Several of the little samplers included this pattern. The smallest triangle would have had a base of less than 1/4 inch -- unbelievable that anyone could work with such tiny pieces with such precision.

A second quilt caught my eye for sure. The front of the quilt was beautiful, but the back of the quilt had thousands and thousands of tiny beads sewn into intricate patterns. A young woman from Arizona made that one.

In a separate room was another special quilt. It's hard to describe this quilt, which they had hanging over a rod. It wasn't as complex as some, and when I went to the door, I couldn't imagine why this one had such a place of honour. There was a museum person in the room, however, and I soon learned that this quilt was carved from wood! It had folds and ripples and I would defy anyone to identify it as anything but fabric! They had a piece set out so people could look at it and feel it. The quilt was carved from a piece of basswood -- must have been about 8 or 10 inches thick to carve the folds and ripples. It was a full sized quilt, painted and showing even tiny little quilting stiches. Truly amazing in every sense of the word.

After a picnic lunch of tuna sandwiches, we headed on west -- along the route that Susan selected. It was easy driving, although pretty much boring and unspectacular surroundings, so we just kept on driving. We decided that we could just make time and drive all the way to Branson, so we did. We stopped in Ozark, really just on the outskirts of Branson, because it seemed like a good Super 8. Susan took us directly to a motel, but it wasn't a Super 8. We looked and looked and reprimanded Susan several times until we finally decided to go and ask at the motel she took us to. Turns out it WAS a Super 8 but is now an independent motel. We couldn't get rewards points there, so we crossed the freeway and are in a Days Inn -- seems fine, in fact, pretty nice, and gets Wyndam points for a free motel stay just the same as Super 8.

We're going to head down into Branson and will leave in time to get to Harrisburg tonight -- that's about 3 hours from here, and thus we should be able to get to Denver tomorrow. I'm off now to try to do something to make myself look presentable and then we'll get out free breakfast and head off to Branson.

By the way, we bought gas for under $3 in a couple of places. I think the best price is $2.55 right near our motel.

I wonder if anyone is reading this blog --