I didn’t sleep well last night, I think because I started
taking cold/cough medicine every 4 hours. Clay was up first this morning at
6:02. We were docked on the port side again facing downstream again. So, our
windows/balcony faced east and we caught the sunrise as a bunch of barges
sailed past. I showered and went to the Paddlewheel Lounge to make my mocha. Clay went for a walk ashore
and found a set of 244 stairs up to a lighthouse on a hill so that is where he
went. I sat out front in the shade with my mocha and watched people come and go
and the fish jump. Then I went inside and put some pieces together on the
Thomas Kincaid Tara jigsaw puzzle.
Breakfast at 7:30am and the trolley tour soon, so I need to
go brush my teeth. First, Clay had
steak and eggs. There was beef on the menu today for all 3 meals. Clay found it
timely. He has been eating a lot of fish and had pork for dinner last night.
The consensus at the table of the people who had the pork was that it was their
worst meal. Blackened stuffed pork tenderloin with dirty rice, but it wasn’t
blackened. Avoid. (The chicken at lunch yesterday was supposed to be blackened
and it was, with black pepper!) Anyway, Clay said he was craving beef, so he
should get his fill today. Today’s lunch options were first course of broccoli cheddar
soup or salad. Main course choices of salmon Caesar salad or beef burger. Dessert, chocolate
éclair or ice cream.
This morning’s tour was typically disorganized it seems. We
stood in line to board the first trolley which we were told was full. A second
trolley came and pulled in front of the first and it was soon full. At this
point, Robert and Davina came and said they had empty seats on the first
trolley so we jumped out of line and got on it. (I use the word line loosely,
at least 30 people had walked around us
and gotten in front or beside us at this point, though there was still a line
growing in length, some people just walked around it and clustered up in front.)
The main problem seemed to be the boat’s guests. We had to sign up for the
tours we wanted by Sunday night. Robert advised us to sign up for every tour we
were even remotely interested in because if fewer people showed up than signed up it
wasn’t a problem, but the other way it was a problem. No kidding. Still it seems
that every time it is time to load a tour, twice the people show up as signed
up and someone (probably someone who signed up!) gets displaced by a rude
person and ship’s staff seems unprepared, unable or unwilling to handle it.
They just let the free for all rip and eventually they get around to handing out water. So, the 2nd
trolley left and shortly after that, trolley 1 finally got a husband and wife back together
who were each holding a seat for the other on 2 trolleys (which seat holding
should not be allowed to happen, but that is another story!). A 3rd
trolley arrived as the train cleared the riverfront area. Our trolley drove
straight up to Rockcliffe Mansion for our tour. The trolley driver told
everyone to leave anything on their seats that they didn’t want to carry as he would
be right there waiting for us to come back out. Not, of course. There was at
least one or two trolley loads of people lined up when we left and they were
not going to fit on the 3rd trolley and the Hannibal Trolley only
has 3 trolleys. So, when we came out another trolley driver had just
unloaded his passengers and he called his boss to be told to drive us to the
boat and come back. People wanted their stuff and he said he’d get it back to
us on the boat. Meanwhile, we had to remove all the personal things his first
passengers had left and then we told him that we had not had our city tour but
had driven straight up to the mansion. So he gave us the city tour and then
dropped some of us off in town and took the rest to the boat. It was a fiasco.
We learned that this was the hometown of Molly Brown as well as Mark Twain,
somehow that convergence had eluded us before.
When we got back onboard, Clay decided to go launder some t-shirts. I
dug out 2 of my knit tops and off he went. There are actually 2 washers and 2
dryers up on Deck 5 and they are complimentary which is very nice. He had to leave between
lunch courses to move to the dryer and I went up and took them out after lunch. The
dryer had stopped but the shirts were still damp, so I spread them around the
cabin. The worst part was that the first thing to come out of the dryer had an
enormous used bandage on it! I don’t know whether that got picked up in the
washer or in the dryer, but it didn’t make it feel like I had an armful of
clean clothes!
We made it to the pilot house tour and learned that the Queen of the Mississippi has z-drives or 2 aft pod-like multidirectional propellers in addition to the paddlewheel and they are all designed to work together. But that going downstream they just disengage the paddlewheel and don’t use it. It is in freewheel mode, so it can just spin freely. We learned that we are traveling about 6 miles an hour (which doesn’t sound right!). Later we heard we were traveling about 9 miles an hour. I still don't know our speed traveling with the current.
We just went through lock #22 and in an hour or so, Mike
says we will pass Louisiana, Missouri. I don’t know why that is significant
other than he says it is confusing. Like Mark Twain being born in Florida,
Missouri. We saw the sign as we passed the town just after dinner and it only
said, Louisiana, not Louisiana, MO so I can see how it might confuse someone.
Dinner was first course of iceberg wedge or cream of asparagus
soup. Main course was chicken breast or rib eye steak, pasta or crab cake. Evidently
the crab cake was the winner. We did not have it. Dessert was coffee pana cotta
or blueberry pie.
Looking for the channel 2 TV show about Mark Twain tonight.
It is on. Good night. Hard to believe tomorrow is the last day of this segment.
But it is. The tip envelopes and instructions were on the beds tonight. In our
rooms on arrival last Saturday was a big 3-fold card and among other welcome aboard information
it listed that the suggested average tip is $125 per person for a 7-night cruise and that
a gratuity envelope would be placed in your stateroom for this purpose. This
information was not reiterated on the information slip stapled to the envelope.
That slip said ACL would accept check, credit card or cash for tips. It directed that the filled envelopes be turned in at the Office with the Hotel Manager tomorrow morning between 7:30am and noon.
