TRAVEL TALES

Douglas M. Wood

If you want to see the heartland of America and have a great family

trip, take the riverboat American Queen from Cincinnati to St. Louis.

We did and had a great time. “We” included Douglas and June Wood of

Balboa; Andrew Freeman, Wendy Wood Freeman and 10-year-old Emma Freeman of Loomis, Calif.; Michelle Wood, 17-year-old Douglas Wood

III, 10-year-old Katherine Wood, and 7-year-old Matthew Wood of

Foothill Ranch, Calif.

We all flew to Cincinnati, where we joined the American Queen.

It’s a 418-foot paddlewheel steamboat designed for the inland rivers

and launched in 1995. There are 222 staterooms, and it can carry 436

passengers with a crew of 167. On our journey of almost 700 miles, we

had about 320 passengers. Our cruise started down the Ohio River

until it met the confluence with the Mississippi River, then farther

south to New Madrid, Mo., before proceeding north to St. Louis, our

ultimate destination.

We left Cincinnati in the early evening of the first day and

traveled to Louisville, Ky. After a short visit, all the young ones

came aboard with bats, balls, caps and gloves. They were even able to

play ball on the beautiful grass area adjacent to the boat landing.

That night, we had the first stage show put on by a talented group of

players. And, again we left port in the very early evening.

The riverboat captains prefer to travel at night, when there is

less commercial traffic on the river. Captain John Davitt, a 28-year

veteran with the Delta Queen Steamboat Co., was our captain. We awoke

the next morning in Henderson, Ky. John James Audubon, the noted

artist whose bird paintings brought him fame, spent many years in

Henderson. The John James Audubon State Park Museum has an extensive

collection of his works, including oils and watercolors. In the early

afternoon, we slipped away from the dock in Henderson and headed for

Paducah, Ky.

After a long afternoon and nighttime journey we arrived in

Paducah, the home of humorist Irwin S. Cobb. Cobb, who said, “It is

better to be born a homeless orphan in Paducah than duly certified

twins anywhere else on Earth.” William Clark, who was Merriweather

Lewis’ partner in Northwest exploration, bought a huge tract of land,

and Paducah was part of that land. Clark reportedly named the city

after an Indian friend, Paduke, a Chickasaw chief. Paducah was also

the home of Alben W. Barkley, who was the 35th vice president of the

United States, serving with Harry Truman. We departed Paducah in the

afternoon and headed for Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Like many Mississippi River communities, Cape Girardeau has the

marks of several empires. It’s named after a French officer who

settled there in the 1730s. Rounding out its international flavor, a

Spanish Indian agent built a trading post at Cape Girardeau in 1792.

Built on the Mississippi River, it became a center of river commerce.

Later, in 1881, a railroad reached Cape Girardeau and became part of

the traffic complex of Missouri. Our next stop was Chester, Ill.

Chester, Ill, is noted for the Popeye comic strip. Popeye’s gang

included Swee’pea, Olive Oyl, Wimpy, Roughhouse, Geezle and big bad

Bluto.

All are found in Chester’s Popeye Museum along with many, many

mementos of those grand comics. In the late afternoon, we departed

Chester for St. Louis.

St. Louis is recognized as the “Gateway to the West.” Its

beautiful arch rises high above the shoreline of the Mississippi.

Captain William Clark and Ensign Merriwether Lewis began their 1804

“Voyage of Discovery” to the Pacific from St. Louis; hence the name

Gateway to the West. A number of the Wood-Freeman group traveled to

the top of the arch and also took in a St. Louis Cardinals baseball

game; others visited the Arboretum and the St. Louis Science Center.

Our journey ended in St. Louis and we all headed for home, happy

with our own voyage of discovery.

* DOUGLAS M. WOOD is a resident of Balboa.