RAMBLIN' ON THE RIVER ON
THE AMERICAN QUEEN
by Shirley Linde


 

If you want to get the feel of the heartland of America, go on a cruise on the American Queen. Cruising on it is as American as apple pie. It is a U.S. vessel, the staff and crew are American, and the focus of the cruises is American.

The American Queen along with the Mississippi Queen and the Delta Queen saunters from town to town on the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland and Kanawha Rivers, with a riverlorian on board to talk about the history of the rivers, the towns and people connected to the river. The cruises reconnect you with America and her heritage.

The three ships offer 3 to 11-night steamboating vacations from New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, St. Paul, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. Our cruise was from Memphis to Cincinnati.

We stayed in Memphis the night before the cruise ... a great way to experience the atmosphere and the feeling of the America's heartland that we were about to cruise through. We gorged on Memphis barbecued ribs, deep fried pickles, catfish, and Elvis Presley favorite fried peanut butter and banana sandwich; we watched the ducks in the Peabody Hotel lobby, went to the National Civil Rights Museum at the location where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, walked along the riverfront and through streets with old restored buildings, and of course strolled Beale Street, the home of the blues. We saw W.C. Handy Park and the house where Handy lived. He wrote Beale Street Blues and Memphis Blues, and was one of the first to put blues into written form, important to its growth.

Other Memphis memories: a great band at BB King's, two policemen playing pool at the local pool hall looking like a background scene from the movie Airport, an interesting police museum, the 1928 Orpheum Theatre.

An ad says: Memphis, where the blues sets the mood, rock n' roll adds rhythm and the good times never miss a beat. Correct. We will be back.

We boarded the boat after our fried pickle, peanut butter and catfish lunch. What a cool boat! It is the biggest paddlewheel steamboat ever built, and it sat there in glorious gingerbread and filigree fanciness. From the entrance deck a few feet above the water we went up the double curved stairway to the Mark Twain gallery, filled with Victorian furniture, Tiffany lamps, old photos, and other period antiques. The boat does an excellent job of capturing the old days of riverboats that plied these waters. In fact, a Mark Twain impersonator came on board later with the stories of his days as a river pilot.

American Queen is the largest steamboat ever built, 418 ft. long, a flat-bottomed paddlewheeler with a long bow that allows it to come close to a riverbank and the crew swing over the gangplank for passengers to reach shore. The big red paddlewheel at the stern is driven by steam pistons restored from a 1930 Corps of Engineers vessel plus a modern auxiliary electric z-drive engine.




The nightly shows were a mixture of vaudeville and cabaret in the Grand Saloon lounge that looked like an early opera house, including private box seats on the mezzanine level. The show the first night was keyed to America. A local military guard presented the United States flag and the opening medley was of George M. Cohan hits.

Captain John Davitt, charming, funny, and totally in control, first went to sea at age 17 and has been on the river for 24 years. He has been on American Queen since the beginning and his love for the river shines through his conversation when he tells river stories and talks about the 50,000 buoys in the river, the sandbars constantly forming, the annual steamboat races with tens of thousands of people on the banks watching and cheering. He is proud that the three Delta Queen boats have such a high percentage of repeat passengers, many of whom have taken over 100 trips.

Passenger capacity of the American Queen is 436. The choices of cabins are many. The grandest suites have a queen-sized antique four-poster bed, a carved sofa bed that you can open if needed, large ornate mirrors, and French doors that open onto the deck forward. Two similar staterooms are located aft on the promenade deck. My first choice would be the forward cabins so that you have a sweeping view of the river ahead (and the aft cabins although equally grand get some spray from the paddlewheel.)

Other luxury suites have forward or side views, but not the four poster bed. Some have verandahs and others have a sleeper sofa or a bay window seat. Somewhat smaller are outside staterooms, with view to port or starboard and with either a bay window looking out or French doors that open onto a deck. Bathrooms have a shower or shower and tub.

Inside staterooms are smaller, have two lower beds or bunk beds. Most adjoin outside staterooms so that they can be used for families. There are a few single rooms without single supplement. Several staterooms are wheelchair-accessible. Contrary to most vessels, at present smoking is allowed in all cabins.

Typical daytime activities when we were not on shore included everything from Captain Davitt telling what it is like to be master of a river vessel to dance lessons, ping pong, cooking demonstrations, movies and kite-flying from the top deck.

There are two dinner seatings, one at 5:15, the other at 7:45. Typically there is a show in the lounge at 7, everything from a funny rock 'n' roll show to an evening with Mark Twain. There is a pianist in each of two bars, one just forward of the dramatic big red paddlewheel, brightly lit and hypnotically and constantly going around as it pushes us up the river, the other in the Captains Bar, often with singalong.

From 9-11 p.m. each night we danced to the music of Stuart Lanning. Two dance hosts are on board, in fact there are dance hosts on board every Delta Queen vessel, even short cruises.

Our first day on the river had no shore stops. There was little to see along the shore except long stretches of empty land in front of the levees holding the river back from flooding.

The next day we stopped at New Madrid, where we got a closeup look at small town life in a river town. New Madrid was the site of  the strongest recorded earthquake in North America. A series of quakes struck the area in December, January, and February of 1811 and 1812, the largest a violent 8.9 on the Richter Scale.

The calliope played loudly every time we departed from a port, and friendly people waved from shore. (One afternoon we all had the opportunity to play the calliope, with or without talent.)

Paducah was our next stop, a grey cloudy day but it was brightened by our tour guide on the bus that picked us up at the river landing. He was Barron White, author of I Remember Paducah When. "Have you been in Paducah all your life? No, not yet, only 80 years so far."

Paducah is a friendly town. When we went to the Railroad museum we were allowed to ring the bells and sit in the engineer chair and put our feet on the deadman's switch. (Only when you held it down would the train go. Lift your foot and the train stopped.) If you are a railroad buff you would enjoy the dispatching controls and the N scale model trains. Paducah is where a young man who peddled donuts by bicycle peddled his way to a multimillion dollar business named Krispy Kreme. There are many antique stores, a 1905 market house, and the most modern public stainless steel rest rooms we have ever seen.

Not to be missed is the American Quilt Museum. There were magnificent contemporary and antique quilts representing hundreds of hours of meticulous painstaking creative work and included a special exhibit by 23 male artists from across the U.S.

Back on the boat that afternoon there was a class in Swing Dance and a cooking demonstration by executive Chef Keith Bryant. Soon we were going through our first lock, the boat easing itself into the entrance, the gates opening before us, the crew making lines fast to the sides to hold us firmly as the water flowed in to raise our level. Then the gate in front of us opened so that we could continue on to the higher level. 

We spent Wednesday cruising on the river and going through several more locks, and on Thursday afternoon arrived in Louisville. There was a bus tour focused on the Kentucky Derby with a tour of Churchill Downs. We took a tour to a glassworks studio where we watched glass artisans at work, then went to a museum of fossils located at the Falls of the Ohio River, where some 200 acres of fossil beds are exposed when the river is low. The fossils were formed more than 300 million years ago when this area was covered by sea. The Lewis and Clark Expedition began here 200 years ago. John Audubon painted many of his birds here.

That night we were invited to have cocktails and dine with Captain Davitt at the Captain's Dinner. It is a Mardi Gras theme and dessert was followed by a second line and Mardi Gras jazz.

On Friday we woke up to see that we are already docked at Madison, Indiana, tied up to a big tree on the Ohio River bank. Madison was an important boat-building town and is a treasure for anyone interested in historical architecture. The entire downtown river front area - 133 blocks - has been declared a National Historic Landmark. In a three-hour walking tour we strolled along the riverside park, saw homes and public buildings constructed as early as 1818. Many were Greek Revival styles, typical of many antebellum Southern mansions, with huge 14 ft. doors, two-story columns in front, everything symmetrical. Several had been owned by riverboat entrepreneurs and were designed by eminent architect Francis Costigan, famous for his use of curved walls and even curved doors. There were wrought iron fences and architectural grill work at many homes, and indeed much of the famous wrought iron work in New Orleans was made here in Madison.

With our guide we foraged along a little drainage ditch for old mussel shells with 1/2 inch circular holes in them - they were remnants of the factory here that made buttons by stamping them from river shells. We had to be back on board by 12:30, but I could have stayed another day or two checking out the historic homes and wandering the antique shops.  One of the nice things about cruising is that you can sample many places and then go back to spend more time in the places where you have the most interest. I hope to come back to Madison.

On this our last night, sadly, we had our last dances and packed our bags.  The time on the river was good.

The boat approached Cincinnati in the early hours of the morning, working its way to the riverfront landing downtown. I grew up in Cincinnati, went to grade school, high school and university here so I felt the coming home. At 4 in the morning I stood in the doorway of the cabin in pajamas plus a parka and watched as we slowly approached  the Cincinnati riverfront, the mist rising from the water, the air sharp, the spotlight from the bridge probing the shoreline. As the city came into view, buildings were dramatically lit in the clear air, four huge American flags waved, lit up against the dark sky. The tears ran down my face for my childhood and my family now gone. 

How very lucky I was to live and grow up in America. And this river cruise had brought it all back.

Click here for more photos of the American Queen.

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