Off the Mississippi

Our trip on the Queen of the Mississippi from St. Louis to St. Paul was really good. I wasn’t able to get a consistent wifi signal, so didn’t try to post during the trip. We flew to St. Louis on departure day, and flew out of St. Paul on ending day, so we didn’t see anything of either city. We’ve spent time in St. Louis before, done the Arch, etc., so that was okay. We’ll just have to save Minneapolis/St. Paul for another trip.

In between, we stopped at Hannibal, MO (Mark Twain, of course), Davenport and Dubuque, IA, LaCrosse, WI, and Red Wing, MN. I guess our favorite stop was Dubuque. We met up with some internet friends for a couple of hours, and toured (with them) the great Mississippi River Museum in DBQ. The scenery along the river was lovely and fascinating. There wasn’t as much barge traffic as we’d expected, but we were told most of it would be grain coming south, and we were a little bit too early for that. We saw a little bit of color, but not as much as we’d hoped for. There were lots of bald eagles to watch for, and each one was exciting.

The lectures and entertainment on board were quite good, and the food was fabulous. Since we had been upgraded to a suite, our cabin was great - even though we didn’t spend a lot of time there. It was nice getting to meet the other passengers - from all over the country, Britain, and Australia. We ate dinner most evenings with two couples from Long Island and California.

We got home about 6:30. All the travel went on schedule, but we were cold the whole way home. It was chilly in St Paul when we left the boat. It was cold on the plane all the way to Atlanta, and then it was chilly and windy there. We sat in the cold wind for about 45 minutes waiting for the shuttle, and then huddled together all the way to Chattanooga. It surely felt good to get into the warm car that had green-housed in the sun. We stopped for burgers at 5 Guys on the way home. We got unpacked, and spent the rest of the evening in our chairs.

As always, it’s good to be home.