Maybe there’s a generation gap here. Among the news in cruising is that next year there will be two steamboats working the Mississippi River, up one from this year and up two from 2010.
For some of us “steamboats” were what quarterbacks counted before they had to throw a pass in touch football. The “Mighty Mississippi” was just something Johnny Horton sang about in regaling us about the Battle of New Orleans. And riverboats were floating restaurants anchored to the banks of the Mississippi where one could be introduced to tasty dishes like catfish thermidor.
How times have changed. Now there’s a boom on the river!
When the Queen of the Mississippi joins The American Queen (above) on the mighty river next year, it will be either a test on the future of river cruising, or a precursor of what is to come. River cruising is up in most parts of the world, and the Mississippi has been void of steamboats since 2008, when the company that owned The American Queen (and the Mississippi Queen) sank in muddy financial waters. The Mississippi Queen was eventually sold for scrap.
Now her 436-passenger sibling, The American Queen — largest steamer in the world, is getting a $5 million facelift and a permanent port in Memphis. And the 140-passenger Queen of the Mississippi will be making her maiden voyage from New Orleans to Memphis in one year from this month.
Meanwhile, what will quarterbacks count now?