The five sisters invade Paducah

We didn’t drive too terribly far to get to Paducah. It looked longer on the map because we had to get off the interstates for a while. You’d think in a state as heavily populated and central as Illinois, the interstates would all go from here to there. But they don’t. Take a look at an atlas. I wonder how much pork was involved in misdirecting all the highways.

Anyway, it wasn’t our intent to visit Paducah per se, just to get to a city of reasonable size so we could stock up before heading to our cabin on Kentucky Lake. It was the first time we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, and compared to most of the rest, this place was like heaven. People still slam the doors and kids still try to rule the pool, but the facilities are very high end for a place called “Express.” We thought it would be like Ramada “Limited.” We were very pleasantly surprised.

People and dogs are not the only ones staying there. In the lighted sign at one end of the building is a whole family of birds’ nests, each one in the cutout of a letter.




Be sure to enlarge these so you can see! They're so cute!

When we went to the pool, we found five elderly ladies all in the spa, with a whole lot of other people all around. These turned out to be the five sisters from nearby Bardwell. Every three months or so, they abandon the men in their families and spend the weekend at the hotel. Sometimes daughters and granddaughters come along. They have made up a calendar of themselves very much like in the movie Calendar Girls, except none of them are naked, although they have a whole bunch of funny settings. Apparently this is a private production. I tried to find them on line and couldn’t. They were hilarious and we enjoyed their company. They have one brother, and in the pictures, he looks like a deer caught in headlights. I guess they’ve devoted themselves to making his life pure miserable. Funny as hell.