Mississippi River Boat Road Scholar Adventure: Part 10

Sun. April 9: Our final Port of Call was in tiny Helena, Arkansas. Our bus had returned to New Orleans at the last Port of Call and so we were encouraged to ride the American Queen buses and enjoy their commentary and stops, which is what Chuck and Mary chose to do. Ann, Shelby, Marv and I reserved four of the boat’s bicycles and spent an enjoyable morning riding to and along the levy, and then throughout the tiny, depressed downtown area (where the now closed movie theater marquee welcomed the passengers of the American Queen) and visiting the few sites. Helena is truly the “Birthplace of the Delta Blues” and much of their tourism revolves around that. There were a couple of small but nice museums and several restored old homes. We visited the Pillow-Thompson House which, despite being a Sunday morning, was open and eager to host us (complete with cookies and scones, and lemonade and ice tea) before the large busloads of American Queen passengers arrived. We were given such a thorough tour of the lovely home that we ended up slipping out when the first bus came. But it was a beautiful day to be outside and we were happier just exploring the downtown and following the top of the levy until it was time to return to the boat. The saddest thing about this visit was that the clasp on my necklace opened and I lost the small crystal heart that Ken gave me years ago and I usually wear on our travels.

Getting to the levy at Helena. That's the
Mississippi River in the background.

The Pillow-Thompson House

Looking at the dining room from the front parlor.

A Food Warmer built into the radiator in the dining room.
Brilliant!

There was LOTS of gleaming woodwork throughout.

Along the top of the levy there was flood plain to the left (east) with the River
beyond, and the town of Helena to the right (west).

Ann and Shelby riding along the top of the levy.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cruising towards Memphis. We had our final lecture by Brian, this time on “Louisiana’s Free People of Color”. There was a Captain’s Farewell Reception with a champagne toast and dinner included lobster tail and prime rib. The evening performance was “Music of our Lives”. Afterwards, it was a very warm, clear evening with a Full Moon so Ann, Marv and I went in the tiny salt water pool on the top deck for the first time but it had a pretty disgusting scum along the water edge and floating on top so we didn’t stay in long.

The six of us cleaned-up "purdy good" for the Captain's Reception and Dinner.
(from left) Ann, Shelby, Marv, Mary, Peggy, Chuck

The Full Moon 

Music of Our Lives

All our stops on the way from New Orleans to Memphis

First thing after Breakfast in the morning of Mon. April 10 we boarded buses that took us to Memphis Airport, where we had a long wait for our flight. But around lunchtime we were on our way and had as uneventful a return trip as our trip had been to New Orleans. We all enjoyed ourselves very much and, although the Road Scholar Trips are pretty expensive, felt like we had gotten our money’s worth in both learning and fun. That does it for our spring travels. The next Savage traveler Adventure will be this fall to Iceland in October with Kris and Heidi. Be sure to check back here then.

Waiting.......

The Mississippi River we had just left