Wrapping things up for now



After some work came my way, I headed back home as quickly as I could manage taking into account weather, stamina, and road conditions. I still have a few notes from my trip that I'd like to turn into a blog post, so here they are.



It was a clear night and I had an expansive view from my hotel room in Clint, Texas. (That's where I took the sunset photo.) A not very exciting little restaurant in Clint may also serve my favorite steak ever. It's a ribeye marinated with carne asada flavors and grilled up juicy and tender (unlike most carne asada, which is usually a thinly-sliced tougher cut of meat). They offer it with a baked potato, but if you ask, they'll substitute rice and beans. Yum.


Driving through Las Cruces, I saw a pickup truck with what I thought were Luci lights on the dashboard, and I thought to myself, "A kindred spirit!" I have several that I keep charged up on my dashboard. But a second glance told me that they were baseball caps, not Luci lights. Oh well... they're someone's kindred spirit.


I miss the desert and its flora. The last vestiges of desert flora as I head east are prickly pear cactus, and these weird scrubby, cactusy things in Arizona and New Mexico and western Texas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_elata


My last stop before arriving home was Paducah, Kentucky. There's a fabric store there that I really enjoy, and I had been looking forward to shopping there on my way home for several months. I was there not too long after they had to close a number of the gates in their flood wall, and they were still in place. I also live in a town that has a flood wall between it and the Ohio River, and occasionally the gates are installed here too. The rest of the time, there is a park and a nature trail and a boat ramp that are accessible. When I'm up for taking walks, it's my favorite local spot for it.

Paducah has murals on its flood wall (as does Tell City, but Paducah has a lot more flood wall and a lot more murals) and the openings in its flood wall are quite a bit longer. It was interesting to me to see the similarities and differences in their flood wall gates. Their small ones are very similar to the ones I've seen in Tell City, but the big ones have all kinds of extra supports and gauges. Here's a closer shot of the Paducah flood wall gate and its supports and gauges:



And here's a longer shot that shows a bit of the murals on either side:



I'm back home now, settling back in and doing some work again for the first time in a while. Until my next trip... -Karen

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