Life in Geezerville: Day 2--Red Wing, MN to LaCrosse, WI

We are sailing on the Mighty Mississippi. It's excellent. This morning after breakfast at the luxurious St. Paul Hotel, we bussed to Red Wing (you know, the home of Red Wing Shoes). It is about 45 minutes from St. Paul. We left the busy city and drove on the interstate past many cornfields that still had a lot of corn to harvest. It was not quite ripe! That surprised me. We shadowed the River most of the way and saw lots of boat traffic, some barges, some barge pushers and alongside the river, lots of trains.

Once in Red Wing, we boarded The American Serenade, the newest ship on the river (according to American Cruise Lines). We had a welcome aboard glass of champagne and we were told to find our rooms. We took the very quiet and fast elevator to the 4th deck and found our sweet "suite" right outside the Sky Lounge (where they have warm cookies daily at 10 and 3) as well as a myriad of drinks and beautiful river-views both inside and out.

There was a lot "stuff" that had to be covered today. We did the life vest and muster routines, then we were told about excursions, meals, drinks, snacks and other important stuff. The excursion coordinator said we want you well fed and watered on the cruise. That's a fact too. The food menu is fit for a Hobbit with some sort of food, snack, dessert, main course, etc. listed for every hour of the day. Since Hobbits are known to eat a snack called "tensies" or "elevensies" (one for each hour of the day) they would fit well with the American Serenade.

Tonight we are rolling down the river at a nice clip. The water is smooth and the ride is easy. We were eating dinner when we passed thru a lock right at sunset. Later after dinner we sat on our veranda and looked at the view. If you use your imagination, you can almost see Tom and Huck hiding in the wilderness by a campfire. It's pretty amazing, as it still looks like Mark Twain described it all those years ago. Tomorrow we stop in LaCrosse WI. I have a shore excursion but I have no idea what it is--but it sounded OK when I checked it off. What I do know, we'll have more adventures on the water and in the towns that dot the Mississippi in the days to come. It's all good. Remember, we're all in this together.