We’ve spent a fun few days on the Mississippi River, paddle wheeling north toward our final destination on Friday morning: St. Paul, Minnesota. We’ll be turning with American Queen and sailing back to St. Louis, so stay tuned.
Today we’re in La Cross, Wisconsin. What a charming city. All along the way, the weather has been gorgeous, with trees ablaze in color, and the river performing its mystical magic. The food on board has been fantastic — even if I am having to steer clear of some of those high-calorie dishes, no matter how good they look — thank goodness for the gym with its two treadmills and stationary bicycle (new Technogym models) as well as dumbbells. I counted 400 calories burned this morning.
The onboard entertainment has been terrific. This is Washington Week on board, and tonight we’ll watch the Presidential Debates in the Grand Saloon. This morning, we watched a presentation about how the broadcast industry is adapting to the digital age by Hari Sreenivasan of the PBS Newshour. Earlier this week, Gwen Ifill, also of PBS Newshour, entertained us with a talk about the news industry, the elections and her career.
The only complaint, if you can call it that, is that internet is spotty. Not American Queen’s fault. This is the Mississippi River, and we are passing through some remote areas. However, internet is free of charge on board, and when it does work, it works well. Nonetheless, I parked myself in an internet café in La Cross to upload this story and photos. They barely do justice to the beauty along the river. To experience that, you’ll have to come along yourself.
