Well, long story short, I’m pleased to say we’re in Paducah. Part of it is that I’m pleased at how a near weather-induced series of airline travel misadventures managed to realign themselves in precisely the right order to get us here this evening. Part of it is that it’s just fun to say “Paducah” (Pah DOO’ cah). PaducahPaducahPaducah.

And I’ve got to say part of it is that, from our brief exposure to the inhabitants of this Western Kentucky riverside town, Paducah’s got some of the friendliest, consistently most hospitable folks I’ve met anywhere in a long time. From the gentleman I sat next to on the flight down (instructed me on the interplay between bass fishing and local liquor laws), to the staff at Midwest Aviation (where “Julie” is hangared), to Jim the CFI (who stayed way past dinnertime briefing us on cockpit procedures). To the nice lady at the hotel front desk and the sweet, young eye-fluttering waitress who served us dinner at Doe’s (turns out that a sweet, young eye-fluttering Kentucky accent can render me completely unable to speak in complete sentences). We’ve just been given uniformly lovely hospitality – it’s a shame we’re going to be leaving in the morning.

But maybe the weather will keep us here a bit – the forecast is a bit uncertain at the moment. Maybe we’ll have time to check out the river walk, or the National Quilting Museum. I would not have guessed, but Paducah is apparently recognized as the Quilting Capital of America. There are billboards, Quilt-in-a-Day workshops and shops all over to help you get the most out of your quilting addiction\h\h\h\h\h\h\h hobby.

Anyhow, it’s late, it’s been a long day, and I still have all sorts of manuals to study before tomorrow morning. More later!