September 19-20, 2014

September 19, 2014

The weather has been lovely except for one day that was somewhat rainy but didn't rain on any of our group. I guess it paid off that we all reminded each other to pack rain gear. In fact, the weather got nicer the farther north we went. 

Today we were at Red Wing, MN. It was named for a Sioux chief who used a dyed swan's wing as his badge of rank. It's a nice little town known for manufacturing things like shoes, boots, pottery and more recently also robotics and safety equipment. Several of us did some shopping there. 

We did manage to turn up at the Front Porch Cafe for lunch at about the same time. That's the casual eatery on board. Between buffet meals, you can get most anything to drink, cookies, popcorn, and self-serve soft ice cream. We will miss it...especially the latter.

The afternoon was low key. The most excitement was sitting near the one super-slow public access computer watching people's frustration as they tried to print boarding passes. Later I began packing so I wouldn't have to do it later. 

The entertainment this evening was a duo from Las Vegas impersonating "Rat Pack" members Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Quite a good nightclub act. Later in t.he Engine Room Bar, Jackie and Bobby were joined by most of the band members for a blues jam session. The music was wonderful, but needed to be in a much bigger venue. Early to bed because we have to get up prior to the crack of dawn.

September 20, 2014

Yup, prior to the crack. We were up, breakfasted and off the boat by 7:20 a.m. At the gate at the airport, I chanced to ask about up-grades, and not only got one, but also got a much earlier flight. I still had hours to wait in Charlotte, but that's nothing new, and I did get home hours earlier than originally expected.

All in all, it was a very fine trip. I was pleased to see Sallie, chris, George, Liz and Dave enjoying both the boat and the cities and towns we visited that are so different from those on the East Coast.

        I'll try to add some of the photos that Sallie took once I get them off the camera.

September 18, 2014

     First, let me add a word or two about accessibility. A cruise on this boat will work for all sorts of walkers and rollators and wheelchairs and transport chairs. It will probably work fine for a power chair if you get a handicapped cabin with enough room for it. It would not be good for an electric scooter as there are a number of tight turns and narrow spaces on board. As for on shore, if you are able to get off the boat and to where the American Queen's own buses load, you can certainly ride the hop-on hop-off bus around any of the cities and towns visited. These buses have wheelchair lifts which is excellent.

     River cruising, at least on the Mississippi, is not like ocean cruising. Between the man-made bridges and Mother Nature's control of the water level and the weather, it's often difficult for a river boat to keep to an exact schedule. For example, we're traveling at a high water time and last night ran into a major amount of fog to the point where the Captain had to just pull over and wait it out. This put us 7 hours behind schedule. As a result, we will not be stopping at LaCrosse, and will only make a brief stop at one of the locks for some new entertainment to come aboard. Meanwhile the entertainers already on board whipped up an extra event for this afternoon. Heaven forbid there should be a time when there was nothing for the passengers to do but read or nap!

     So what did the 6 of us do but spend the morning talking about future travel possibilities. Hah! At this point, with the world cruise coming up this coming January through April, I refuse to make travel plans beyond next July 4th. That, however, doesn't mean I can't discuss it. 

     In the afternoon Dave and George and I won at team trivia, but we also learned some new trivia that we had missed. We all then spent the rest of the afternoon out on deck enjoying the sunshine and watching for eagles.

     The new entertainment was a group that does cowboy songs. It took most of us back to our childhood when we played cowboys and indians and went to see Roy Rogers and other cowboy heroes when the rodeo came to town.

September 17, 2014

We are at Dubuque today. I was here back when, so am staying on board while the others go exploring. 

I had a leisurely morning then some great pulled pork (but not as great as Tom's) for breakfast/lunch along with some hot Dixieland from the boat's band. I also got caught up with e-mail, Facebook, etc., since when everyone else goes ashore, the wi-fi and server speed up to a tolerable pace.

The others got back about mid-afternoon. They had ridden the AQ bus around then walked back to all the sights pointed out from the bus. By the time I caught up with them on board, some of them were starting to feel their four hour trek. In late afternoon,Sallie and George and I found a good spot to watch us leave Dubuque. It was interesting to watch the crew swing the gangway around once the lines were off and we were headed upstream again. We also got nice views of all the new buildings and development along the river front as well as the antique Star Brewery building and the Shot Tower which I remember from my previous trip. 

More great music today and this evening, plus a fine dinner. A good day.

The American Queen is a very accessible vessel. It has handicapped accessible staterooms with extra floor space, big bathrooms, plenty of grab bars, a step-in shower with a seat, etc. There are 2 elevators on board. Of course there are times when everyone is trying to use the elevators at once, but that's true on any ship and in most hotels. All doors that I've seen have lever handles instead of knobs. Most doors to the outside decks have little ramps over the thresholds. There are some door sills and thresholds that would make a bump for anything with wheels, but most aren't bad. In some places, getting anything with wheels through a door can be tricky, but usually a crew member or passenger will be happy to hold the door for you. Lastly, I have found several restrooms on various floors that are accessible which is handy. Since the whole itinerary is in the U.S., the various ports are mostly ADA compliant, so the American Queen is a very do-able vacation for handicapped and/or mobility impaired travelers. 

September 16. 2014

Well, I appear to have survived both the frog legs and the green beans. (Those who know me will know why  that's funny.)

The weather is still cool, but sunny again and rather nice by afternoon. We went through several more locks. Most of them had flocks of pelicans that would take off as we came by and not fly away, but just swirl around for a while then settle again. There are lots of big fancy and smaller neat-looking houses along the banks above the dams. I certainly hope they have lots of flood insurance!

At lunch there was a big fancy buffet in the dining room. I've got to say that their pecan pie is very, very close to being as good as my own. During lunch the band set up in the lounge just outside the dining room and played jazz standards -- very nice. 

That was just the beginning of the music today. Bobby and Jackie each did a solo set during the afternoon. Bobby played 4-string banjo, and there were very few there other than Chris and Sallie and me. So we got to teasing with him to see who knew the weirdest songs. Sallie won, hands down with a couple of Neil Diamond Side B's that are seriously strange.

Next we made a brief stop in Clinton, Illinois. That was partly because we could get to it since the river is high, and partly because it's the Captain's home town. Clinton has something over 7,000 residents, and I think almost a quarter of them turned out for the event. I'm still not sure if the Captain gave a plaque to the Mayor or vice versa, but there was a lot of handshakin'and speechifyin' down on the dock. A rousing calliope concert ensued.

Next was Jackie's solo act in the bar aft. (That bar is right in front of the paddlewheel which you can sorta see spinning through a row of round windows...I keep expecting to see a row of cherries turn up.) Again, Chris and Sallie and I were the only ones there for about half of it. We learned new lyrics to several songs from Jackie, and she may have learned some from us, too.

Then it was back to the Grand Saloon where the main show was another by the band plus the singers/dancers. This time it was more Baby Boomer music. Frankly, any Baby Boomers on this boat would be considered youngsters. I enjoyed the few instrumentals more than the vocals, although the kids do have a lot of energy. 

Finally after dinner, Jackie and Bobby were doing Beach Bash music in the bar. The bar waitress, Brenda, is really energetic, and between filing drink orders is really good a getting people up dancing and participating? There were several "contests" this evening, and Sallie won the limbo contest. As for myself, this Br'er Rabbit just laid low in the briar patch every time Brenda came near. But I am really enjoying all the good music on this trip. The quality of the entertainment here easily equals or surpasses that on the big cruise ships.

Other than frog legs and a few other specifics, I haven't said a whole lot about the food/dining on board. It is excellent. The menu choices are not gigantic, but there is always something for every taste, and if there is something you need, or something you cannot eat due to allergy or any other reason, they will do everything in their power to make you happy. The food is well prepared and attractively served. Wine is included with the meals, and soft drinks and bottled water are always free. If it sounds like I'm impressed with the American Queen, I am.

September 15, 2014

Yes, I know I'm late catching up on this trip. It's all going well so far despite some schedule changes. 

The flights to St. Louis went smoothly. I got there just a little while before my friend Sallie, so we were able to share a cab to the hotel. Our room had a lovely view over a park with fountains, and if you looked out  way to the right, you could see half of the Arch. The hotel was also  next to the baseball stadium, so there were Cardinals fans everywhere. We soon met up with Chris, George, Liz and Dave and got initial information from the American Steamboat folks about breakfast, luggage pick up, buses to the boat, etc.  

After breakfast the next morning (September 13), all but Sallie and I went off on a brief tour of the city. Sallie and I read and people-watched in the lobby until they got back. Then they all walked over to check out the Arch, but there wasn't time to go up in it. After pizza (Imo's) for lunch, we boarded one of the buses wrapped in a photo of the American Queen for the trip to Alton, IL where the boat was docked. Boarding was a painless process since all the paperwork had been done back at the hotel.

Our cabin is very large as is the bathroom...logical as it is a handicapped accessible cabin. Our luggage was already waiting for us, so we got unpacked pretty quickly. I discovered that I forgot to bring the adapter thing that lets me upload photos from the ccamera to the iPad, so no photos until I get home. Sorry.

The food on board is everywhere and excellent! In addition to the dining room, there are several areas with coffee/tea and cookies, and one with on-going snacks as well as popcorn and soft serve ice cream machines. At dinner last night, George had a pork chop that was the biggest any of us had ever seen...huge in diameter and about 1.75 inches thick...if not 2 inches. George shared tastes of it with the 5 of us and I swear my bite melted in my mouth like butter on a hot biscuit! This evening at dinner, my appetizer was frog legs (yes, I really did eat them...I have 5 witnesses who were actually more interested to see me  eat green beans) while my entree was Parmesan crusted chicken with a lovely garlic cream sauce. Yum.

Our schedule has changed from what I posted above due to  flooding upstream. Instead of the first day (September 14) just cruising along, we had to hurry to Hannibal because we had to get under the bridge there before the water level rose too much as that's the lowest bridge on this route. So we had a short visit to Hannibal, then lowered both the stacks and pilot house and squeaked under both bridges there one so close that some crew up top had to duck. Today (September 15), we had a stop at Burlington, Iowa. Tomorrow we will be cruising with a brief stop in the afternoon at Clinton to receive an honor from the mayor there. After that, back on the original schedule.

The entertainment on board is some of the best I've seen on ANY sized ship. So far in the Grand Saloon in the evenings we've had a fine jug band, a man named Bill Prince who plays fantastic jazz on trumpet, clarinet and flute and lectures on the history of jazz while doing it, and this evening a program with 4 singer/dancers doing more jazz "Bourbon to Beale." Then each night in the Engine Room Bar there's been a duo called Jackie and Bobby on piano and base guitar that are really goo. Last night they did 50s and 60s music, this evening they did C&W, and tomorrow should be Beach music. There is one pianist/singer who plays before and after dinner right outside the dining room whom none of us like, but he's pretty easy to get past without stopping.

I haven't been ashore yet, and might not bother to go at the other stops either. I'm sending my camera ashore with Sallie who forgot to pack hers. They all go ride around  on the AQ hop-on-hop-off buses then choose what to stop and see in detail. Then I get reports back from them all when they return. Did I mention that the weather is a bit chilly? Meanwhile, Chris and I are having fun sending postcards to a third grade class in Harrington, DE. We've learned a number of things about these cities in an effort to have interesting things to write about.

The St. Louis 1904 World's Fair was where ice cream cones were popularized in the US although there were edible cones used before that in Europe.

Hannibal was named for the Carthagian general and not Hannibal Lector as our cabin steward thought.

Burlington is/was called the Backhoe Capital of the World. It's also the home of Wallace Carothers who invented Nylon and Robert Noyce who invented the integrated circuit (microchip) and is a co-founder of Intel, all of which changed our world.

That's about it for now. I'll try to keep up better.

September 2, 2014

Starting to think about the next cruise. This one will be September 12-20 from St. Louis, MO to St. Paul, MN on the American Queen with friends Chris, George, Liz, Dave and Sallie. I like this itinerary as I prefer the scenery of the upper Mississippi to that of the lower part of the river. The upper portion of the river has hills, roads, etc. along the banks that you can see as opposed to just a view of the levees. It also has 27 sets of locks which I find fascinating.

I'll post the itinerary and map below...or I hope I will because I'm using a new program to produce blog posts.

Friday, September12           Home to St. Louis, MO
Saturday, September 13      St. Louis, MO
Sunday, September 14        Cruising
Monday, September 15        Hannibal,MO
Tuesday, September 16       Cruising
Wednesday, September 17  Dubuque, IA
Thursday, September 18      LaCrosse, WI
Friday, September 19           Red Wing, MN
Saturday, September 20       St. Paul to Home