Traveling with the Grobmyers a little history, fabric, trains, and erector sets.

 The Midwest region of the ACGHS club held a little erector meet/show this past weekend in Lafayette, Indiana.  We loaded up the truck and headed north for the event.  Well you know us we don't just drive straight to a place we have to find some stops along the way, and this trip was no different.

Our first stop is one we have talked about making for over 30 years.  James K Polk home in Columbia, Tennessee.  Every time we drive north on I65 and we see the sign we say we really need to stop.  So we did Thursday morning. If you are ever in the area stop in and take the tour.

We had a personal and private tour of the home.  We learned a lot about ole James. He was our 11th President.  He almost wasn't our president.  Their convention was much more exciting than the ones we have now.  He wasn't originally being voted for and no one could agree on the candidates. One the 7th round of voting he came forward and made his case.  He would only run for one term, he promised to annex Texas and acquire Oregon. And with those items on the table he won the nomination.  

His wife Sarah was a great partner to him in Washington.  She took care of the social engagements and James worked all the time.  Most of the time he worked 16-17 hours a day 6 days a week.  So Sarah kept up with the news in town. 

The couple were both short of stature.  These are lifesize statues. 
 

This was the Polk family home.  The home that James and Sarah returned to when they left Washington was in Nashville close to the Capitol but was torn down in the early 1900's.

Some things James did while he was president: created the Treasury department, created the Smithsonian, acquired what is now known as California, Nevada, Utah, parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. These were acquired as a result of the Mexican American War. Through a treaty with Great Britain we obtained Oregon.  He also opened the U.S. Naval Academy. He broke ground for the Washington Monument. He also issued the first U.S. Postage stamp.  For a one term president he accomplished a lot.

At the end of his one term he and Sarah went back home to Tennessee. He left Washington on March 4, 1849 and he died June 15, 1849 at the age of 53.  Sarah wore black every day after he died until she passed away on August 14, 1891.

After a very educational morning I hit the first of several quilt shops for the weekend.  This one is in Columbia called Granny B's Quilt Shop.

We left Columbia, BTW mule days is this coming weekend if you want to go check that out, and headed northwest to Dickson, Tennessee.

We had lunch at Little Bite of Everything and our hamburgers we very good and very messy.  You know that is a sign of a good burger.  After lunch we went to the Clement Railroad Hotel Museum.  The hotel opened in 1914. On June 2, 1920, Frank Clement the 41st Governor of Tennessee was born at this hotel.  We were given a tour of this site as well.  The highlight of this tour was upstairs.  On Thursdays they have a couple of guys inside the train layout room running the trains.  This was the main reason we made this stop.

On to Paducah for the night.

I started early this morning and hit the Hancock of Paducah fabric store.  If you haven't been here before you need to check it out.  It can be a little overwhelming because it is so big, but they do a good job of labeling the rows by designer. 

 

Next stop was a new place for me the National Quilt Museum.  This is also in Paducah and they are having their big quilt shop at the end of April.  I've never been to that either but I can only imagine.  These quilts are so incredible and they come from all over the world.  There were also some really pretty stain glass windows in the building that look like quilts as well. 

We drove on to Layette, Indiana. We met some friends for dinner at East End Grill.  The food was good but the company was even better. 

Saturday morning I dropped Joe off with all his erector stuff he wanted to send home with his friends and I met my friend at the Quilted Bee shop.  She introduced me to this shop last year and it is a great shop.  I found some pretty good stuff there.

She then took me to a new to me shop Betty's Quilt Shop.

And for equal time here are a few of Joe's pictures from his show.

The show was over and I came back and rounded Joe and his few things up and we headed south.  No trip on I 65 is not complete without a stop at Mark's Feed Store in Louisville.

Thanks for following along with us.