Complete Mississippi River Cruise - Day 7

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Friday, August 15, 2014

It was a hard night last night. We have been sleeping right through the locks at night, but not last night. At 3am or so, whoever was driving the boat went nuts with the bow thrusters for a long time before getting us settled into and back out of the lock. I got up to look and started a massive coughing fit that lasted as long as the maneuvers. Clay got up to close the bathroom door on me and told me I was waking the neighbors. I expect the bow thrusters had already done that, but point taken. It wasn’t like I could stop it though and when it was over, my chest felt much relieved from the congestion. Clay was still annoyed when I settled back into bed, but it isn’t like there is ever a good time or place to yak your lungs clear.

I was up first again this morning. We were sailing in a broad part of the river and up ahead and to the starboard I could see pink. There were lots of pink clouds last night at sunset too. I told Clay and he got up and went out for photos. He said it was a good one. I saw some before and after my shower. I went to the Paddlewheel Lounge to make my mocha and Clay dropped off our tip envelope and asked to settle up. He was early since they said 7:30am to noon. But, they had set up in the jigsaw puzzle room (sadly since the puzzle is nearly done with some major breakthroughs yesterday for which I take no credit). Clay asked Gerardo if he owed him anything else and he said no, you’re not going to the baseball game are you. Clay said no and Gerardo said then you don’t owe us anything. That is nice.

Back from breakfast. Clay ordered corned beef hash with his eggs for 2 mornings now. Yesterday he got bacon, today he got the hash. Yesterday we only had grape jam, and today Clay said it happened again, but I went through them and there was one blackberry so we picked it out of the rack. The waitress came and apologized for only grape jam and said there were just 4 racks of 4 jam jars left on the boat at all. We showed her the set-aside blackberry and she laughed and said good, that is lucky, hold on to it. Clay wondered if he should hold on to a jar of grape to make sure he gets any tomorrow, but I told him there is no excuse for them to have no jam tomorrow in St. Louis. We are expected to arrive in St. Louis at 1:30pm today and our city tour is at 2pm.

I managed to get a menu/order form this morning. Here is lunch followed by dinner. First course is creamy oyster stew or summer mixed berry salad. Main course is cherry Waldorf salad or BBQ flank steak. Dessert is strawberry shortcake or ice cream. Dinner: first course is poached shrimp or French onion soup. (The actual soup served was tomato bisque.) Main course is beef tenderloin or stuffed lobster tail or surf & turf. Dessert is chocolate raspberry terrine or Mid-West root beer float cake.

It was a morning at loose ends. We didn’t have cabin service until about 11am so we were wandering the boat trying to either stay out of the sun or wind. To have a view or to have something to do. To have some quiet. We would have worked on the jigsaw puzzle, but that room was filled with the bill paying setup. It was a painful morning. 

The other thing was that about 40 miles above St. Louis we entered the Chain of Rocks canal near where the Missouri River joins the Mississippi River. It has what Mike says is our last lock. I know he means last lock before docking in St. Louis, but I don’t know if it is the last on the river. (It turns out it was the last lock on the river period.) I don’t know if our Riverlorians are on through to New Orleans or leaving tomorrow. (They left.)  Anyway, other than the tons of Great Blue Herons, it is a depressing sail between 2 river rubble covered levees. I guess it is what makes river navigation through here possible though, so it is good for us.

The Gateway Arch came into view on the starboard side about 11:30am, so I guess we made it. Hurray! New Orleans here we come then… Oh, I don't know if I wrote about it but on the day we were bused to the boat the odds were projected as 75% to 90% as to whether we would be able to sail all the way from Dubuque to St. Louis on schedule. So, yeah we made it!

So, our cruise documents show us at the base of the Gateway Arch at 500 S. Leonor K. Sullivan Blvd. and we sailed down to that exact spot and found what looks like a construction zone. We sat for a while then turned back upstream and now seem to be sidling over to dock on the port side again with the nose upstream. I don’t know how far this is from the Arch, but I hope it is close since we have to walk to it in the morning. Also, Mom & Judy had planned to walk to the boat with their luggage. I’ll have to see if I can get more information and get in touch with Mom after she gets to the airport this afternoon. It looks like we are putting the gangway ashore and parking nose aground like when we first boarded in Dubuque. That will give Mom & Judy a view of the Arch from their port side cabin. We have an ugly view of an old bridge. I think if you came out of the Arch to the river and looked upstream that you couldn’t miss it. I think it might be a quarter mile walk at that point, Clay thinks it might be a half mile. We’ll have to find the transit station where they will be arriving from the airport and meet them.

So, we’re back from our tour. We’re also back from walking about 2 blocks to the Arch-LaClede’s Landing Metro Stop on Washington Ave. ACL has hired a woman in a golf cart to ferry people around within some close radius evidently. She dropped off a pair of sisters from the ship as we were standing there and I was on the phone with Mom telling her what to do. Her name was Cathy and she had me give Mom her phone number to pick them up and drive them to the boat. They expect to arrive around 10:30am, so we’ll still plan to be there to meet them.  They and their luggage arrived safely.

As to the rest of the St. Louis City tour. This is the longest tour we’ve had all trip. It still wasn’t much of a tour as it consisted of driving around and just looking out the windows. We saw and learned about St. Louis Flounder Houses. But at least some time was put into it. Also, they made an effort to check the signup list against the people who showed up, but then they didn’t keep them from taking seats that hadn’t been ordered for them. I don’t have an answer. Every person we heard them tell they weren’t on the list replied that the list was wrong. So, who knows. The farthest point of our tour was to InBev Anheuser-Busch for a Stables Only Tour and a free beer. We saw a few Clydesdales and their tack and stables building, that took as long as the potty break. Then we had twice that long for a free beer. Clay had an Amber Bock (dark) that he really liked and then he drank the Shock Top Belgian White that I ordered and pronounced both better than what he’s been drinking on Queen of the Mississippi. As far as I know that has been either Bass Ale or Abita Amber.  

The final dinner was a sparsely attended meal. During the cocktail hour, they had served a light buffet supper in the Paddlewheel Lounge to everyone going to the ballgame. They left on a bus as the rest of us sat down to dinner for the final time on this cruise segment. It seemed a haphazard and rushed affair tonight. Not the usual farewell dinner that happens on all group travel large or small. Oh, well. (I should note here that the final night of the 2nd segment was not special either even though people weren't bused off for a tour or event. It had the same surf & turf, otherwise it was not a special farewell at all either.) Note: I checked between the Passenger Lists they gave us for each cruise and there were actually 28 people on the Complete Mississippi. That was more than I thought since the staff and crew were surprised every time we said we were on both segments.

There was a single sheet on the bed tonight with instructions for tonight and tomorrow. Breakfast will be at 7am, so 30 minutes earlier. Everyone is expected to be off the boat by 8:30am. We have reservations to go up the arch at 9am, so we should be gone as well. There was also a stuffed eagle. An eagle! Ack! It turns out the name of ACL’s loyalty/repeat passenger program is the Eagle Society. I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I will. The stuffed eagle was made in China. Well, more tomorrow.

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