River World Field Trip, Alton, IL to Lake Charles, LA and back on a working towboat, 1956
October 24, 2015SOUTH TO THE SEA
April 8 – 25, 1956
[editor’s notes: Virginia somehow talked her way onto several of these Midwestern river working towboats, business boats that simple didn’t carry passengers and didn’t have such things as safety lines. In fact, this boat, the Cape Zephyr, carried over 2,000,000 gallons of gasoline which at one point lost power and plowed into a sand bank. This trip journal was found in a binder, unedited and typed with few corrections. Many of these sections show a clear path into River World and her other river books. In other words, these are her creative notes that later books came from.
While it is a chronicle of an amazing trip few women ever experienced in the 1950’s (or now), it also hints at many nature, social, economic, diet and health issues to come in America.]
[Editor’s note: sample page from the journal. Each typed page was opposite a set of photos. It appears Virginia ran out of film with about 200 miles to go. For clarity, each photo was scanned separately.]
SOUTH TO THE SEA
Round trip, Alton, Illinois to Lake Charles, Louisiana, and back to Havana, Illinois, 2100 miles in 17 days aboard a working towboat.
When word came from J. D. Streett and Company via Mr. Baker and Captain Griffin that I would board the CAPE ZEPHYR about Tuesday, April 10, I proceeded to gather together the things I would need, clear up pending jobs, prepare Larry’s clothes, and get the May Living Museum written and turned in. Consequently, it was a good thing I was somewhat ahead of myself, because towboat schedules, if any, are extremely elastic and the CAPE ZEPYR got ahead of herself, At 7:15 Sunday morning I had a phone call from the marine operator, connecting me after some delay with Captain Griffin on the CAPE, which was steaming at a fast clip on a rising river down the Mississippi from Bettendorf, and could I get aboard at Alton about 4:30 that same afternoon? That put me in a delightful flurry of getting last-minute things gathered up. I baked two batches of the usual boat cookies, without which I doubt if the crew would let me come aboard, was thankful I had baked an angel food for Larry and Herman the day before, fried a chicken and fixed the rest of noon dinner, which was ready when the two came home from church. By that time I was packed, and after dinner we drove down to Alton. It was a bright but cool day, and I was undecided as to whether I would take my coat along south — and was thankful all over again that I did take it.
We drove along McAdaras Parkway, looking for the CAPE, and there she came, fast, shoving a high empty barge, but had to stand around above the locks while the BLUE SEAL and the BETTY BREHT were locked through, upbound, together. Meanwhile the crowd at the lock observation platform was eager to see That Woman get aboard a towboat — but since the CAPE’S barge was empty and high, and she came in the high end of the lock, I had only to step down two steps before I was on, with the kind assistance of Captain G. and Russell and Ilar who took my things. Larry and Herman drove down to the point below the locks to watch us go through. By that time I had been down to the dining room for supper, which featured baked ham and spice cake and chocolate sundaes, and went up on deck to wave to my two men standing alone there on land.
We got to LeMay terminal at 9:30 for refueling, etc. and were on our way again at midnight or thereabout, heading fast down a dark river.