I woke up to feel us moving at 6:05am. I got up and peeked
out the blinds just as the boat was turning back downriver. It was a pink
world. The sky was pink in every direction and the river was smooth as glass
and reflecting the pink. The nearly full moon was still high in the sky and
reflected in the pink river. There was a few feet of mist rising off the
river’s surface near the shores. It was enchanting. I hurried through my
morning routines and Clay and I spent the early morning on the outside front
deck with my mocha. There were tons of birds and I think we saw every species
of egret and heron that live here. A couple of osprey, an eagle or two. I watched a Great Blue Heron catch a fish and share it with another heron on the same sand bar. Clay missed it. It
was surprisingly cold out again this morning. I don’t know if it is a cold
front coming through or what, but we both expected it to get hotter as we went
south, not the other way around.
I had a most delicious cinnamon bun French toast today. Clay had fried eggs after being upset at not seeing them on the menu. I spent the morning in the Magnolia Lounge. Mike, the Riverlorian, had a lecture on the Mississippi from headwaters to sea. Clay went aft and brought back warm sugar cookies. I stayed for bingo. ACL doesn’t charge to play bingo. If you show up then you can play 2 cards. I won on the 2nd game. I chose from a table of little souvenirs that Davina buys from our tour stops on each cruise. So, it was the Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium or the John Deere gift shop from my quick look. I took a small wristlet purse from the aquarium. Finally, the other Riverlorian talked about the life of Mark Twain on the Mississippi River. Tomorrow we have 2 Mark Twain tours in Hannibal, MO.
We passed Fort Madison, IA which was one of yesterday's tours and must be closer by road than by river. We passed the first lock in Keokuk, IA during all that. The dam and lock at Keokuk were the first built where there were originally falls. The lock at 38 feet elevation change is the tallest.
Other
than what I have described the only other activity was from 9am to noon, sales
of future ACL cruises. Oddly enough, that seems to be all they are selling.
Well, that and tickets to a baseball game in St. Louis on Friday night. Tips
are not included in the fare but we haven’t seen anything else being sold. They
don’t sell logo items or souvenirs or drinks or bingo cards. It is pretty
pleasant actually.
Lunch is first course of white bean stew or peach salad. Main course is BBQ
chicken salad or crab & crawfish mac & cheese. Dessert is rice pudding
or ice cream.
Back from lunch at 2:30pm. Yes, for those keeping up, that means it took us 2 full hours to be served lunch. Up on top deck now is a sing-a-long. Clay is
sitting on the balcony. We saw a couple of eagles and a nest. I had to come in
because the sun was burning my feet!
At 3:30pm they are having a mystery guest
tea in the 4th deck Sky Lounge. I plan to go to that. First I think
a nap is in order. I am sorry to say that after a couple of days of runny nose
that today it has moved into my throat and chest and standing out front in the
cold wind all morning didn’t help me.
We got stuck above lock #20 as a 15-barge unit was coming
through in pieces and they thought it would be up to a 2 hour wait. So they
moved us aground in the mud on the side of the shore. They said that we had one
more lock after that before arriving in Hannibal, MO and since we were scheduled to
arrive at 6am tomorrow we would be early and arrive probably between 9pm and
midnight. With all that was going on (I saw an eagle or osprey fishing at the
edge of the river. Clay missed it, again.) I never did get a nap.
At 3:30pm Clay went with me up to
the Sky Lounge, it was nearly empty and no tea was set up when we arrived. We
took aft facing seats since the paddlewheel was facing downstream at that point
turning to keep us in place ashore. We had a nice table between us. Tea was
poorly done. There is not room for even ½ the passengers in that lounge. Maybe
a ½ that many, or 1/4 of the ship's passengers showed up to not find anywhere to sit. The mystery guest was the
female Riverlorian in Victorian garb who introduced herself as the ghost of, I
think, Miranda McGillicuddy. She read from her notes, without her reading glasses, for about 15 minutes on the history of
tea. By my count during that time 16 people were served tea and half that many
got crumpets, eclairs or little sandwiches. All the rest of us got nothing. It was an unpleasant fiasco. So,
hopefully everyone has spread out again or gone to the digital photography
presentation up top and I will go to the Paddlewheel Lounge and try to get a
cup of hot herbal tea for my chest and throat. We are now entering the delayed 20th
lock.
Dinner is first course of beet salad or bbq shrimp. Main course is blackened stuffed pork tenderloin, pecan crusted drum fish or expresso rubbed beef tenderloin. Dessert is cherry pie or orange sour cream cake.
As I type this we have passed the 21st lock and
should be to Hannibal within 1 to 3 hours. We will probably be in bed asleep by
then since it is past dinner and the sun is setting. We will be docked in
Hannibal until 4pm tomorrow. We have 2 tours scheduled. We are on the 9am
Hannibal Trolley Tour and the 2pm Mark Twain Boyhood Home tour. Queen of the Mississippi is offering pilot
house tours tomorrow at 2:30pm and 3pm, so either we will miss those
opportunities completely or else the Mark Twain Home tour is going to be much
shorter than we expect.
I was planning to watch today’s channel 2 programming which
was in the newsletter as “The Mighty Mississippi” but our TV was turned on when
we got back from dinner and channel 2 is playing an ACL promotional video for
onboard booking. They have been really selling on this sailing day! I guess I
should say that while I didn’t watch I do know that the previous days channel 2
was supposed to have played “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”, “Riverscapes” a nature film by Steven
Marking (one of the singers onboard), “The Sound of Music” and tomorrow is
“Mark Twain: Behind the Laughter”.
Yesterday we had no Internet most of the day. Today we have
not had Internet all afternoon and evening. At least it is complimentary!
