014 Paducah!

The next morning, November 10th, we finally found a place that lived up to its billing.  We liked Paducah so much; we stayed two nights!

The first thing you need to know about Paducah is that the Ohio River has a seasonal variation in water level of fifty feet.   That is the normal variation, spring being the highest level.  The docks at Paducah are “floating’ and the dock supports are tall.   This picture gives you some idea of the scale, the arrow points to normal sized adults walking up the gangway:

 

The second thing you need to know is that Paducah is a walled town.  There is a flood wall built on the river side to protect it from the “every seven years or so” floods. 

 

The wall is painted with murals depicting the history of the town.        https://www.paducahwalltowall.com/the-murals      Here is a sampling:

 

The third thing you know is that Paducah is the home of the National Quilt Museum. https://quiltmuseum.org/  I didn’t go as I was involved in my ongoing battle with the dinghy, but Nancy and the crew of KatMat went.  These are not your “grandmother’s quilts,” they are true works of art as this sampling shows:

The fourth thing you need to know is that Paducah has a very charming and lovely “downtown” right near the marina.  Here is just one building:

Now, about the dinghy:  In the Log of the Sea of Cortez, John Steinbeck writes about their ongoing battle with their dinghy’s outboard motor.  In our case, it was the dinghy itself and my  need to pump air into the port pontoon twice per day.  This was a new and somewhat expensive dinghy.  I researched and researched the best inflatable to buy, after selling this one that I built as a covid project, retrospectively judging it as being too heavy for the back of Hygge:

 

I finally settled on a TakaCat based on the recommendation of a friend.  I didn’t research deep enough because as I later discovered, they have known air leaking issues.  If I don’t pump it  up, it sags into the water behind the boat. Nobody likes a flaccid dinghy.                              

In order to diagnosis the issue, I had to do a "bubble test" which involves spraying soapywater along the valve and seams to see if soap bubbles form.  While soap bubbles are good at children’s birthday parties, they are not appreciated on your inflatable dingy.  Here are the  results of the bubble test:                                                                                                      

 

 

Long story short, I was within the warranty period and TakaCat is sending me a new one but we won’t meet up with it until mid-December.  So, for now, my twice daily pumping continues.  

 We had some good news to report: the “man we left behind,” Willie Dawes arrived: 

 

That night we all (crews of Hygge, KatMat, and Willie Dawes) had dinner together at the Paducah Beer Werks.  Mercifully we finished just as the wannabe punk rock band started to play (so 1980’s guys).

Other things we liked.   The view of the Ohio River from Paducah is spectacular:

 

An old steam engine:

 

The performing arts center:

 

 

 Paducah:  a true "must see" stop on the Great Loop.

Dave