FROM HERE TO THERE AND BACK: TRAVEL DAY 3

The first remarkable thing this morning was arriving in the third state on this trip, Kentucky.

Paducah

And then on to a place called Paducah, a place we had never even heard of but one that seemed to have a lot to offer. (This place was one of the planned overnight points on our way, but we came short of it.)

We were actually looking for a certain mansion known as the Whitehaven Welcome Center. As I was constructing this trip, I looked for places that were large enough to have hotels and at distances that we could drive without exceeding our goal of 350 miles per day, and that is how I found Paducah, KY. Arriving in Paducah, we went into a beautiful building that happened to be a bank to ask for directions to the Center for which we did not have an address, or at least one that our Garmin would recognize. And what a delightful specimen of gorgeous architecture this bank was, outside and in!

So, the Welcome Center's location now known, we drove there and what a beautiful sight it was!

The Center is a circa 1860 antebellum home. It is the only historic house in America that has been restored as an interstate tourist welcome center. The house is furnished with beautiful antiques. Tours were not available due to repairs in the mansion. I was very disappointed, but more was waiting to be discovered.

And what a show—an art show!

A thousand feet of concrete floodwalls are an outdoor art museum as the wall-to-wall murals in Paducah, Kentucky.

These floodwalls were erected in 13 cities in five states after the Ohio River flood of 1937. Over the past two decades these walls of concrete, 14 to 30 feet high, have been transformed from gray faceless monoliths into artists’ canvases.

One never knows what treasures are hidden deep in the unheralded countryside... We are determined to find them!

So, now on to...

The Ozarks

The Ozarks are a highland region that covers much of the southern half of Missouri and an extensive portion of northwestern and north central Arkansas. The region also extends westward into northeastern Oklahoma and extreme southeastern Kansas. (Photo by Mark Corder)