Into the woods I go...

Since we turned East from North Dakota into Minnesota, we have been in and out of the vast woodlands of North America. Growing up in the Hill Country of Central Texas, I thought I knew the woods. But these last five months have helped me broaden my understanding of and appreciation for our woodlands. Roughly 50-60% of our continent is covered by a diverse, tree-filled landscape supporting diverse communities of flora and fauna. They are neither heavily canopied forests nor open plains. They may vary from region to region, but they provide the setting for most of the life on our slice of the planet. They have sheltered, fed, and been loved by human beings for over 20,000 years. As we enter the final stretch of our 2024 travels, I pause to celebrate our time in the woods with John Muir’s quote;

“And into the woods I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”

 

We began our week with a drive from St. Louis to Paducah, KY. We left the northern edge of the Ozarks and crossed the Mississippi into Southern Illinois. Once we left the Mississippi Valley, we entered the vast open farmlands of SW Illinois. These were ancient woodlands where generations of native people thrived as hunter-gatherers and then as small farmers. These lands offered them the failed experiment of living in huge cities like Cahokia before they returned to small farming villages based on family groups. They developed many of the native crops that we know today while supplementing their diet with limited hunting and gathering. They lived on these lands for thousands of years in harmony with their Mother Earth. In under 200 years, Europeans have banished the Native people from their land and destroyed the woodlands in favor of massive industrial farming to prop up a lifestyle that the Native People abandoned 2,000 years ago. These massive fields grow just two crops, corn and beans. They require vast amounts of pesticides and fertilizer to produce industrial-sized yields. While driving through these vast former woodlands, I tried to imagine what the area would be if we had been as faithful to the Great Spirit as the former occupants had been.

 

Viking Cruise Liner

As we approached the Ohio River, the land became more wooded, and when we entered Kentucky, we were in the woodlands once again. Kentucky is a beautiful state. We have only nibbled around the edges on this trip, but we need to spend more time here in the future. Paducah is an old town that has been a vital riverport on the Mississippi/Ohio/Missouri River highways. Native People used these waterways for trade with distant people throughout the continent. Lewis and Clark explored the area in 1804. Fur traders paddled their merchandise and traded goods in canoes and flatboats. Steamboats carried goods to and from Pittsburgh, Detroit, St Louis, and New Orleans. Paducah became the hub of River Transportation in the late 1800s with the lock and docks that allowed larger loads to be offloaded onto smaller riverboats for the journey East. The river continues to provide the livelihood of this small city on the banks of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. When we arrived, the city hosted the Viking Mississippi River Boat carrying hundreds of people on an extended cruise from New Orleans to Minneapolis. Paducah is a Rivertown with expansive and genuine Southern Hospitality.

 

On Monday afternoon, we drove to downtown Paducah. We discovered Paducah Wall to Wall: Portraits of Our Past on their flood wall. The city experienced devastating floods from the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers in the early 1900s. The City of Paducah, with the help of the federal government, built a 12-foot flood wall that was the length of the waterfront. Since the waterfront was the focal point of their life, they adorned the wall with murals that tell their story. The murals were designed and printed by Robert Stafford and others. They transformed an eyesore into a treasure. Here are a few shots of some of those murals and the waterfront, including the Inland Waterways Museum in an old Riverboat Company Building.

Fort Anderson during the Civil War

The Paducah Theater

Huge Riverboat Model Collection

The Interior of the Original Building

The Upstairs

Looking to the Ohio

Downtown Paducah

On Market Square

Raising Funds for the Old Theater

Fern Lake at Sunset

Tuesday was a Chill Day. I took the opportunity to do some reading. I continued reading about the history of native people in North America for the last 1,000 years from a Native author. I have also started a second book,  All Things Are Full of Gods, by David Bentley Hart, which argues that it is impossible to establish a physical basis for the mind or spirit, a significant question in my post-Christian life. Both books require me to read for an hour or two and then process the ideas I have read. After an enjoyable day of mind-work, we walked around the campground lake, Fern Lake, and saw a few birds. The woodlands really do fill the soul!

Brown Thrasher

Black-throated Green Warbler (new bird for us)

Fall Colors

Cypress Knees

We returned to downtown Paducah on Wednesday and toured The National Quilt Museum. This museum celebrates the craft of quilting. I can remember watching my Grandma Dees and her Daughters and Daughters-in-law sitting around a quilt that hung from a frame in Aunt Lou's Living Room, quilting a new family treasure. These old skills were passed down through generations of women while they told stories and shared memories, hopes, and dreams. It is not surprising that the quilts on display offered a cornucopia of all this through the needlework of these artists/craftspeople. (There were a few by men who learned from their grandmother.) While I was less than enthusiastic about the museum, I was impressed with the people, their skills, and their craft. Thank you, NQM.

Re-telling the Hobbit in a Quilt

Harry Potter on a Quilt

This is a Quilt!

Sam's Moon Portrait

Crocodylus Smylus is 20 ft long.

Thanksgiving Celebration

Quilter learned from his Grandmother

One of four large galleries in the Museum

Clark 1904 Market Building

After lunch, we walked through the William Clark Market House Museum. This is the city museum for Paducah that is housed in a 1904 market building that sits on the site of William Clark's (of Lewis and Clark fame) first market built after he returned and plotted out the city of Paducah. Like Daniel Boone, Clark was fundamentally a land speculator who would secure large tracts of land and then survey townsites before selling lots. Clark, having traveled the breadth of this river system, understood the importance that this site would play in westward expansion and (unlike Daniel Boone) became a very wealthy man. This museum fills the space that was originally a butcher shop. After a local drug store closed, the woodwork from the pharmacy was moved to the museum. There are many drug store items and other treasures from Paducah's history, especially William Clark and Truman's Vice-President, Alben William Barkley, a native of nearby Lowes, KY. This small city is proud of its history and role in the expansion of the American Frontier.

Filled with 19th Century Medications

Barkley's Carriage

Boots Randolph's Sax

Mary Todd Linclon's Chairs

Furniture from US Grant's Stay at Fort Anderson

Barkley Memorabilia

The First Flag of the Vice President

From the Harry Truman Suite at an Independence, MO Hotel.

From the Balcony

A view of the Market from the early 1900s

A 18th century Linotype

Thursday was our last day in Paducah. It was time for chores and packing up for the drive to Nashville. We had one must-see item on our list and made time for a wine tasting at the Purple Toad Winery. As my daughter said on FB, "The name … would have me bringing home a bottle." Well, we brought home four. They had a free tasting that included up to eight different wines; we tried many of them. We liked every single one and had tough choices choosing four (which is all we had room for in Koko). My favorite was a soft Cabernet aged in barrels, which is used to age bourbon. Marlene's favorite was Black Peach, made with blackberries and peaches. We made room in the wine rack and look forward to sharing these bottles with friends along the road!

 

On Friday, we packed up and made the drive to Nashville. We drove on the north end of the land Between the Lakes, a beautiful recreation area between Lake Barkley and Lake Kentucky. The trees are showing more and more Fall colors. After this week's cold snap, the colors should really pop next week. We entered a small area of corn and beans in fields carved out among the woodlands before crossing into Tennessee. Our campsite is just north of Opryland Resort and has easy shuttle connections for the rest of Nashville. We will be here for 10 nights and look forward to doing some urban camping while we explore Music City, USA. Next week, I will share some of our experiences here in the world's Country Music Capital.

 

And you thought she was non-violent!

In our experience, one of the challenges of traveling East of the Mississippi is the hordes of  Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs that seem to hop into Koko and travel to Texas with us. We attracted them on our New England trip a couple years ago and had to live with them for over a year as they colonized inside Koko. After a hard freeze, they were no longer a nuisance. But they started appearing again when we were in Michigan this year. They have become more numerous as we travel South. You cannot capture them with your hands without stinking up Koko. A friend, Linda Praytor Miller, suggested the BugZooka several years ago. It has become a necessary gear for travel east of the Mississippi. It sucks the bugs into a tube that can be opened outdoors. Thanks, Linda. We have been safely capturing and releasing 10-20 or more Stink Bugs every week. Hopefully, those who remain will become so enamored with Galveston Beach that they will leave us alone before we head west next year.

 

Our travels through the vast woodlands of the Midwest have been a delight. The woodlands have gifted to our lives and culture. The Native People utilized them for sustenance, medicine, and as spiritually rich places. They developed a deep connection with nature that shaped their lives. When European settlers arrived, the woodlands gave them all they needed to build homes and communities. It provided both food and wood to survive the brutal winters. They have also played a pivotal role in shaping the folklore and literature of much of the US. They have inspired the mythology of American life with tales of exploration and adventure. The woodlands continue to inspire artists and writers who add to our American appreciation for the natural world and the growing sense of responsibility for caring for Mother Earth. I hope our care and concern develop faster than our continuing destruction of these storied woods that fill the Midwest. May each generation find their soul in the woodlands that have shaped not just the American story but all life in North America.

Travel well, my friends!

Bob

Only two weeks to go!!!