From Paducah to Memphis

As I promised you, I am sharing what we did for the week after attending the Paducah spring quilt show.  The original plan was to spend the week at Land Between the Lakes(LBL) still in KY.  But, we kept watching the weather and mother nature decided it would be a great time to rain, rain, rain most of that time there.  And we knew we would be wanting to spend lots of time outdoors there and the rain would not allow that. 

So we canceled our reservations there and were able to get a spot at Tom Sawyer campground in West Memphis Arkansas!  Yes if you cross the river you are in AR.  So we added another state to our travels:) The campground is right on the river and our site was right next to the river so we enjoyed watching the huge barges go up and down the river.

As you can see in the above picture we still got rain, but not as much as LBL did.  We managed to get in three bike rides, two across the Mississippi River by taking this bike bridge.  There was also a train bridge right next to the bike one, like only 6-8 feet away, but we were separated by lots of steel so it wasn't scary at all when a train came through right beside us!  If you look at the pic where it almost looks like blue steel, that was the enclosed bridge where we rode.  We wished a barge would come through when we were up there so we could see the top of it, but no such luck.  It was so beautiful for a peaceful ride through a park alongside the river.

We also rode bikes on a great trail at Shelby Farms in Memphis TN.  It's so easy to go back and forth from state to state.

When in Memphis, of course, you have to see...  Do you know whose house this is?

 If not maybe this will be a giveaway...

Graceland and Elvis Presley Museum.  So glad we got to visit and learn a few things we didn't know. Like, did you know he had a twin brother that died when he was born?  Seeing all his cars and his famous jumpsuits he wore was fun!

We also went for a river cruise and to the humongous Bass Pro Shop.  We are not big into fishing but it was a site to see with lots of ponds and 🐟,🐊, more 🐟, ducks.  Oh the alligators were behind a glass wall:)  This place was huge!  It was a great rainy morning activity.

Our friends recommended we visit Beale Street, so we took that in late in the afternoon and then we ate delicious BBQ ribs at BB Kings while listening to a live band play some upbeat music.  

 And all too soon it was time to start the trek back home.  The first day was a very long driving day, all the way from Memphis to Mt. Pleasant IA.  We were not sure when we would want to stop driving that day so we did not make camp reservations.  We just knew we needed to get through St. Louis before rush hour and we made it.  We pulled into Mt. Pleasant campground around 6 pm, tired and hungry.  Luckily they had plenty of space for us, the perks of camping/traveling before high season begins!  The next day wasn't all that long, but we got up and left camp at 6 am and arrived home by 11 am.  We knew the winds were going to pick up and we didn't want another head wind and low gas mileage.

The trip was lots of fun and much needed after a long winter.  I did get some sewing done while camping.  I had cut strips from orange string scraps before we left, the first night on the road I cut them into the right size logs I needed for a log cabin type pumpkin block for table runners and wall hangings. The next morning while waiting for the wind to die down a bit I got out the sewing machine and sewed a few rounds.  That night I sewed a few more rounds.

 Since being home I started using some of the fabric I bought in Paducah-these are from a fat quarter bundle.  They have since been used in 3 table runners, which need to be quilted.

And I have been back on the longarm trying to catch up on runners I have pieced over the winter. Here is one of four that I managed to get quilted this past week.  Yes I am not letting any grass grow under my feet, LOL  Speaking of grass, ours is all nice and green again and our trees are budding out more and more every day, today was 80 degrees-it feels wonderful to have Spring in MN once again!

Since this post does have some scrap usage I am linking up with Oh Scrap