Mississippi River Boat Road Scholar Adventure: Part 9

Sat. Apr. 8: This whole day was devoted to cruising, with no ports visited, so it was very leisurely and relaxing. We got up a little later and enjoyed activities on the boat including a River Chat with the Riverlorian, ”A Conversation with Mark Twain”, another lecture by Brian (this time on Mississippi Floods), and time to watch the shoreline as we chugged along. Marv and I walked 6 laps around the Observation Deck, which equaled one mile. Clotile Kepashvili did a one-woman show called “The Many Faces of Love” for the evening entertainment and that was followed by a Sock Hop where we mostly just watched some really good dancers strut their stuff. 

There are surprisingly few bridges that cross the Mississippi River, even today.
Those that do are usually high and soaring. However, some are old enough and
low enough that the smoke stacks and even the Pilots House can't go under them.  Since
we usually went under them while cruising during the night, they did a demonstration of
how the smokestacks are lowered in the middle of the afternoon.  They didn't show us how
the "crown" is removed from the Pilots House and then the room is lowered into the boat.
But it was still really interesting to see. In the picture above, the smokestacks are going down.

Each smokestack has a "cradle" that supports it in its down position.

Here the smokestack is nearing its upright position.

We didn't see much wildlife along nor in the river. I saw a Bald Eagle at our first stop,
we saw a few cormorants flying low along the river, and there were a few Canada Geese.

On some of the bends there were white, pristine deposits of sand that would
make great beaches but we never saw anyone enjoying themselves there.

"A Conversation with Mark Twain"
This guy was pretty believable!