Paducah, Kentucky, is another one of those noteworthy spots on the map of which few people know, well, unless they happened to have been born there. When I first came across the town's name, I thought I remembered an old W. C. Fields quip about Paducah. In my head it played back as, "I spent a week in Paducah one night," done in a suitable W. C Fields drawl, but I couldn't find any connection on the web to Fields and Paducah.
Last night we followed the advice of the Good Sam book and picked a camp identified as "Duck Creek RV Park." Since we had two to choose from in Paducah, we picked it simply by coin toss, not reputation. When we parked in the entrance area, and I made my way to the office, I could immediately see that getting a space was going to be iffy at best since nearly every space appeared to already contain a RV.
So when the desk clerk asked if I had a reservation, I figured that we might be in a tiny bit of trouble. After I told her no, we didn't, but asked if she had anything left, she said, "Well, if you'd come by here yesterday I'd have to tell you no." Today, I got a few spaces left."
"Thanks," I said, I'm sure sounding relieved. Then, just because she was petite and cute, I added, "I heard that you folks in Kentucky were just the best people in the world."
Her smile got all toothy, and she said, "Beats me, I'm from Georgia." She handed me the map and camp rules paperwork and then said, "Now y'all wait until I come along with the golf cart and I'll show you where to park."
All seemed well until we followed the Georgia blond in the golf cart as she circled all the way around the RV camp lodge and then led us back to the very front row of the camp, just facing the highway. Of course our hearts immediately sank because we just knew that the highway noise was going to be considerable, and probably keep us awake that night. Then Miss Georgia smiled and waved and off she went. Guess my flirting needs a little work.
No matter, I told Concetta. It's only one night. Then I got us all hooked up, and I even lowered the awning which happened to be on the sunny side of the coach. Then we had our cocktails on our own personal picnic table, under the awning, even though the traffic noise sometimes pushed the limits of our patience.
So, bottom line, unless you can get a space at the very back of the property when you come to Paducah, better bypass Duck Creek.
From the web: "Paducah was formally established as a town in 1830 and incorporated as a city by the state legislature in 1838. By this time, steam boats traversing the river system and its port facilities were important to trade and transportation. In addition, railroads began to be developed in the region. A factory for making red bricks, and a foundry for making rail and locomotive components became the nucleus of a thriving "River and Rail" economy."
"It became the site of dry dock facilities for steamboats and towboats, and thus headquarters for many barge companies. Because of its proximity to coalfields further to the east in Kentucky and north in Illinois, Paducah also became an important railway hub for the Illinois Central Railroad. This was the primary north-south railway connecting the industrial cities of Chicago and East St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico at Gulfport, Mississippi and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Illinois Central system also provided east-west links to the Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railways (which later merged to become the BNSF Railway)."
"The Illinois Central Railroad began construction of their largest locomotive workshop at Paducah in 1924. Over a period of 190 days, a large ravine between Washington and Jones Streets was filled with 44,560 carloads of dirt to enlarge the site to include 23 buildings. The eleven million dollar project was completed in 1927 as the fourth largest industrial plant in Kentucky. It became the largest employer in Paducah with 1,075 employees in 1938."
"The Paducah shops were converted to maintain diesel locomotives as steam locomotives were replaced through the 1940s and 1950s; and a nationally-known rebuilding program for aging diesel locomotives from Illinois Central and other railroads began in 1967. The shops became part of the Paducah and Louisville Railway in 1986; and are operated by VMV Paducahbilt."
Looking at Trip Advisor, we discovered that Paducah has a large number of things to do. There's a Quilt Museum, A rail museum, a Civil War Museum, a river walk, a huge and wonderful collection of sea wall murals (see photos 1,2 & 4 above), a Santa Fe train, and just oodles of lesser attractions, including the wonderful bakery where we scored a box of the best-looking cookies we've seen in a good while.
My reason for wanting to go to Paducah's old town, near the banks of the Ohio River, was the promise of a "River Discovery Museum," something that we had missed just a couple of days ago in Cape Girardeau. I've been trying to beef up my knowledge of American river commerce since I learned that my mother's father's great grandfather had been a timber raft man. Timber rafters would ascend American rivers to the forested headwaters, cut a large amount of timber, lash it all together into one giant raft, then descend to some designated spot where there was a sawmill waiting to buy the timber.
It's been said that my ancestor, born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1811, was plying his timbering trade on the Ohio in the 1830s when he met his future wife in Zanesville, Ohio. I suspect that he was not timber rafting the Ohio as is told in family lore, but perhaps the Licking or the Muskingum Rivers that run through Zanesville. At any rate, good ol' Preston Jones gave up his wild, river-running ways and settled down once he had married Julia Ann and taken up farming. I'm not sure just how tough an adjustment that would have been, but a farmer he would remain until his death in 1858 out on the Illinois prairie near the town of Carrollton near where we spent the night several days ago.
Naturally, what I'm looking for is information on people who worked as timber rafters. But try as I might, I have found no book on the subject. Even the web has almost nothing. So it was with a great deal of anticipation that we visited the River Discovery Museum today. But alas, their book selection was meager at best, and the resident docent had never even heard of timber rafting. I scored a small pamplet-sized book on steamboats for future reference, but that was about it.
Well, except for my getting to steer a full-sized towboat tug down the Ohio toward its confluence with the Tennessee (photo above). I had to pass another tow, ease my way close to a slower boat, and steer my own barges between the stanchions of a truss bridge. I did it all without hitting anything or overshooting my marks. It took just a feather-light touch on the wheel. What I'm talking about, of course, is the river pilot's simulator that the River Discovery Museum has at its disposal. Hard to believe it's been over forty years since I held a real ship's wheel in my hand. And damn, it sure felt good.
After lunch in Paducah, we hit the road. As I said, there are lots and lots of things to do there, but we wanted to get a least a few miles behind us in the direction of Louisville. We could have gotten to Louisville this afternoon, I expect, if we had been willing to drive the interstate, but we took instead the tiny, winding, super-narrow Route 60 from Paducah for it's tendency to follow, at not too great a distance, the various undulations of the Ohio River itself. So it was that we ended up at the positively gorgeous little camp known as Moffitt Lake, near Morganfield. We only ticked off 75 miles or so, but the trip was slow, comfortable, and downright delightful.
Moffitt Lake was a camp that Concetta found on her IPhone, and had we been Hansel and Grettel, we would have needed bread crumbs dropped to find our way back out of the hills and woods without a GPS tomorrow. Twists and turns, up hills and down, we were totally lost by the time the magic brain delivered us here. But what a wonderful surprise the lake turned out to be. Though there were about six camp vehicles of various sorts here when we arrived, we only detected humans associated with perhaps two of them. As in many camps, as I've recently pointed out, the campsites we saw on our afternoon walk were all long-termers, and looked as though they had been in their respective camps for months. We are, in fact, the only transient campers here tonight.
The lake and surrounding rolling hills are just breathtakingly beautiful. Huge ancient trees adorn the campsites, and most sites have blacktop pads and grassy surrounds. No sewer connections are available, but water and electrical come with each pad. We paid $20.00, which is wonderfully cheap, and all campsites have a view of the lake. And they do have a dump station which appears to be easy enough to approach.
Tomorrow we're going to stick to Kentucky Route 60 on our way to Louisville. We're not sure what we might encounter along the way, but that's the fun of serendipity. I'd sure like it if we got to see the Ohio at some point, since there were too many trees in the way this afternoon as we motored northeast from Paducah. But come what may, rain or shine, I'm sure it will be exciting. So until we meet again, we wish you Happy Travels.
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