Shortly thereafter Stan Garvey, author or The King and the Queen of the Delta, was giving a 90 minute talk about the history of the boat we were cruising on.
Back in 1927 two boats were built to carry passengers for day trips between Sacramento and San Francisco through the Sacramento Delta region. They were called the Delta King and the Delta Queen. During WWII they were used as troop transport vessels within the Oakland and SF bay areas.
In 1948 the DQ was brought and moved to the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers for overnight trips. The DK ended up beached in Kitimat, Canada for 7 years as a dormitory for Aluminum Company of Canada workers. Eventually it ended up back in the water in 1982 in SF only to partially sink while tied to the dock. It was refloated and after 5 years of cleaning became a hotel on the Sacramento waterfront in 1989.
Afterwards the 4 of us hiked up the steep incline to Water St. During the Flood of 1937 Henderson did not flood. It was the only city on the lower Ohio River that didn not flood because it is more than 60’ above flood stage.
They had one of those sidewalk-level fountains that shoot up water that kids love. Our “kid” loved it too.
Audubon Park was next to the landing and had a great vista of the river and our boat. The Community Center came next and housed the Chamber of Commerce and a free history museum. I met Molly whom I had struck up an email dialogue with while in Seattle. She provided us with valuable info on when the boat would be in her town.
We came back to the boat for our Boat Picnic. Lunch was served family style. BBQ chicken and ribs, beans, watermelon, corn on the cob, cornbread, and lemonade were served.
Afterwards we waited a bit for our “Walking Tour of Henderson” to begin. The tour was just “OK” for me. The lady had lived in town quite a few years so she knew all of the “stories” about everyone. The houses just weren’t spectacular like some of the ones in Natchez or Vicksburg. It’s a nice town – with too many shoe stores on Main St. – but there are a few too many empty windows as well - a sign of the times in small towns. The huge city park was awesome with lots of things to do for everyone and very nice dedications monuments to our country's veterans.
After the tour Doug, Karen, and I went a block or so and had an ice cream bar at a bakery – there weren’t any ice cream cones in town. After cooling down for a bit we walked back to the library which was a block away. This was a Carnegie-paid-for library that had a round conservatory top to it. Years later they added a new wing but we were there to see the old inside.
We walked back to the free museum to ask, “Why do you have these old toys in your display cases?” She said that three of them were actually manufactured in town but that the others were just part of the same collection of some guy.
Having once again cooled ourselves off in an air conditioned building we were able to walk the two blocks back to the boat. It was probably 90 degrees at this point but the humidity was bearable.
Just before the boat left we joined the banjo playing cruise director in singing riverboat songs in the Texas Lounge. Great fun.
30 minutes later the boat left the dock at 5:15pm with calliope blasting away its happy tunes.
Dinner for us is at 7:15pm. Normally our group of 4 would eat at 5pm at home. Fortunately for us this late eating has really worked out. It is so hot at 5:15pm when the first sitting starts that we would have been too hot in our nice clothes. At least at 7 the sun is partially down and the temperature has cooled off so we aren’t sweating as we walk to dinner.
Tonight I had salmon as did Doug. It was a little dry for me so I didn’t eat it all. Karen and Doug (yes, Doug) had Chicken Pot Pie which was great! The insides were in a bowl and the pastry part was placed on top. It was so flaky and light. Betty had Beef Tenderloin and it WAS tender. Hmm. Sounds like I’ll be revising my list of beef-eatables again.
Desserts have been awesome. They make some sort of bread pudding each night but with different sauces. Doug had it the first 3 nights and raved about it. I’ve had it the last 3 nights and I’m raving about it too.
5 comments:
The food looks yummy. Especially the bread pudding with ice cream!!
Have you run across Bunker C Bruno and Deck Hand Deb?
Have you run across Buncker C Bruno and Deck Hand Deb yet?
Bruno and I had a few conversations together. He is very passionate about the DQ.
There was a blonde named Deb who seemed to be everywhere but I never caught her title nor did I ever talk with her. She was in the Texas Lounge a lot near the barkeeper (but the barkeeper had an assistant so I don't know if that was were she worked.) She was also in the Orleans Room during dinner but she didn't have a waitresses outfit on either.
How did they get the boat from the west coast to Tennessee? Did they go through the Panama Canal, or just take it apart and truck it?
Jerry
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