American Queen

Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head.... Made my way to the bathroom and realized it was six a.m.. Looking up, I noticed I was late. Marge, Marge, Marge, Marge... Yes, that tribute to "A Day in the Life" was brought to you, to tell you a bit about the start of my day.

The taxi came at 8 a.m., and we actually made it out on schedule this time. Usually we are consistently five minutes late, which seems to be an unnatural law of sorts. No matter how early we get up, we are still not early enough, and always running out the door five minutes later. For some reason, this always seems to be my fault, even though I don't see how I'm involved in the delay while Margherita's putting on her makeup. That's a rouge of a different color though.

We ran to the airport in the aforementioned taxi, flew over on Northwest Airlines, were harassed by a young child in the row ahead of us on the the plane. The little boy seemed obsessed at sticking his tongue out at me. I would respond in turn and Margherita would glare at me a bit disappointed. She didn't accept my reasoning of "rising to a challenge".
Memphis has some mixed emotions for us. Our last trip here was appropriately titled, "The Good, The Bad and the Elvis." Those stories and memories still hold true. At the airport, we were met by "All Aboard Memphis", a shuttle service that greeted all of the steamboater guests and shuttled them to the boat. They took their title quite literally and not only took our bags but made a point to saying, "Welcome to Memphis" to each of us.

I admit that my first thoughts were mixed. We had some great memories about being on the Delta Queen, but again we were the youngest people on the shuttle bus. As I mentioned last time, I think that's a shame. More people should take advantage of this cruise experience. Margherita was looking forward to "feeling young again" and being showered with attention, but I had a different philosophy.

I've been busy lately. Very busy. Insanely busy. Too much for my Palm Pilot to even handle, type of busy. I've felt like I have compressed three lives into one, and that was just on Monday. Don't even ask me about Tuesday! Anyway, I was sitting on this shuttle bus and looking forward to only one thing-sitting on the deck of this boat, looking up at the stars, and actually seeing all of the stars. Not the standard big dipper and little dipper that you can in the North East region. Nor the standard, "Is that a shooting star or a high flying 747", but actual stars covering the sky like a blanket.

That's it. I didn't want to see big shows, dancing girls, or go nuts all night. I just wanted to eat a meal, get a friendly "southern hospitality" hello, and see the stars. That was all I wanted and all I was looking forward to. It was like my personal chocolate craving.

The Delta Queen, the smaller and older ship in the Delta Queen Steamboat Company is quaint and beautiful. It's like an historic B&B, you feel honored to be in, but also a bit nervous to touch anything. You know it's living history. You see the models of it in literally every port you enter. I've yet to go to one Mississippi river town without seeing a model of the boat.

The American Queen is on a completely different scale.

American Queen from a distance

When you see it, you think it looks just like the Delta Queen, but bigger. Much bigger! It's a magnified version of what a steamboat should be, or at least what you think it should be. It retains that historic feel, but you're actually fooled into thinking that it's hundreds of years old when it's only half a dozen years old.

We walked around the vessel today, just to absorb it. Everybody is full of smiles, and the boat looks as clean and as pretty as possible. Of course it should be, as it's not that old, but that's not the point. You actually feel like you've gone back in time to the biggest and best steamboat of the era.

And that's what I needed. I'm actually sitting on the deck typing this right now. Well, not now as you read it, but.... Well, I wrote this on the deck of the boat. Under the stars, looking up.

We just came back from dinner where I explained that I was on a mission to refill the 13 pounds I recently lost. Most people work off the weight from a cruise, I simply worked off the weight and came to the cruise to put it back together again. But we went for dinner and I had my two dinners and my two desserts. It was the least they could do to do fulfill my goal.

View from our Bedroom

I met Lance, the Maitre'd, a man whose heart and sense of humor are as big as his girth (which to his own admission is quite big). He encouraged me on my journey of eating two desserts and helped bring that second dinner.

Which leads me here. Margherita is sleeping in the bedroom, and I'm literally four feet away, on the deck typing away just outside of our room, which opens on the deck. I am on the port side of the boat, or the "left side where the port is" as Margherita calls it, either way, I'm on the open deck, river breeze in the air, laptop on my lap, feet on a table.

Simple really... but quite peaceful. Occasionally an old lady walks by, commenting on the "ambitiousness of youth", but other than that, you only hear the sound of the waves and the paddlewheel churning away. Then there are the stars, infinite stars, which I've waited what feels like a lifetime to see again.

You can hear the rumble of the paddlewheel enter the water and push us up street. Out in the distance you can hear a mix of a city in the far distance, insects, unidentifiable animals and the river.

You can smell the clean air, which is really an odd way to describe it as, since it's so clean, you can't smell anything. Anyway, you can feel the clean air and the mist of the river floating through it. Downstairs I hear the band playing some ragtime which fits in quite well with the theme.

"Honey it's time for bed."

"Yes, dear I'm coming."

Well, until tomorrow.



Day 1 - On the boat and Memphis
Day 2 - On the boat
Day 3 - New Madrid, Missouri
Day 4 - Paducah, Kentucky
Day 5 - On the boat again
Day 6 - Louisville, Kentucky
Day 7 - Madison, Indiana
Day 8 -Cincinnati, Ohio and Goodbyes Indiana