River World Field Trip, Alton, IL to Lake Charles, LA and back on a working towboat, 1956

April 16,  Tuesday.

It was cold and clear again at sunrise, and gold and blue clouds dappled the sky as the sun came up over the magnificent expanse of Grand Lake.  The Atchafalaya channel runs through this, and is somewhat confusing to wake up to — I was expecting a narrow river, and here was something that looked like the broadest part of the Mississippi, or even bigger.  There were navigation buoys to mark the channel, which was a help. Gradually, then rather suddenly, the river narrowed, but still was a good deal bigger than I thought it was, from what it looked like at night, downbound. The shores were decidedly monotonous, with no landmarks of any consequence, and all willows and a few cypresses for miles and miles and miles.

dinner, roast pork, gravy, mashed potatoes, turnip greens,

black-eyed peas, slaw with pineapple, sliced onions,

pineapple-cheese pie, cornbread.

In the afternoon I went out to far end of the tow to sunbathe and try to even up some of the tan I acquired at Lake Charles.  It was hot out there, but the wind was quite cool, which was confusing. Then Captain Brazie took a left fork which he thought was the river, went up about two miles, found he was in a blind bayou and had to back out, to the amazement of the swampers living in shacks alongside.  The children came out to stand and stare in wonderment at the backing-up big boat which didn’t belong there at all.

supper — T-bones, baked potatoes, brussells sprouts, salad, corn, applesauce, peaches

Wednesday, April 17

We came to the Simmesport bridge at 11:30 pm, and sat and blew and blew and blew, and the bridge stayed closed.  The bridge tender had evidently gone to bed, but pretty soon, eventually, he came and opened up, and we went through without any trouble, and by 2 a.m. were in the Mississippi again.  Moonlight on the Atchafalaya last night was beautiful and silvery.

At mile 326, there were white pelicans gathered on sandbars.  The Todds in great excitement came up to get me. I was having a session with rheumatism in my hands and arms, and was lying down, but had to get up for pelicans, by all means.  The sun was visible early, then the sky was overcast, grey sky, grey river, damp and chill, the river was still rising, and sandbars were under water, willows only partly visible and water back in the trees.  It looked like a mighty lot of water.

Dinner, was fried chicken and cherry pie.  Homer brought up 7 -up at 11 am, as an appetizer.  The afternoon was still cloudy and cool and windy, with a multitude of boiling spots on the river.

supper, hamburgers, french-fries, macaroni and cheese, hominy, lettuce, sliced onions, hot rolls, chocolate sundaes.  A super-abundance of starches.

After supper there came a break in the clouds and a beautiful blue and gold sunset blossomed forth, echoed in the water.

Hardscrabble Bend at dusk, 7 p.m.  River stage, 32 feet, four feet higher than when we came down a week ago.  White patches on the revetments are now half covered.  More pelicans flew up from a sandbar, caught in the searchlight.

The moon was brilliant. Then we had to shove to shore and moor to the trees, with the usual difficulty, while a broken water pump was fixed. We tied up for an hour and a half, close to shore so the sounds of crickets and night sounds of birds, and the smells of trees came cleanly to the boat. And downbound came a floating birthday cake of light., the DELTA QUEEN.  The captain of the CAPE hailed the QHEEN, whose captain he knew, and asked if he minded if he ran the searchlight over her so I could see, and Captain Underwood on the QUEEN said it was okay with him, and I ought to come over and ride the DELTA QUEEN if I wanted book material. All very well, but until the latter offers me free passage, I ride the CAPE!

[note reads: “three years later, to the day, I was on the Queen, riding as a guest of the Green Line.” Virginia went on to publish a book about the Delta Queen that helped save to boat for many more decades of service. Because of this, many thousands of people of a new generation learned the thrill of riding the Queen.]

April 19, Thursday

Mile 436 above Vicksburg at 6 a.m.  Cold — 45 degrees in St. Louis, we heard and not far from it here. Trees were caving in and there was much drift.

At mile 451, Belle Island Corner Light, as we were heading straight toward the point in order to get around it after a crossing, we suddenly had no steering gear. The levers were limp as rubber and we could only sit, turn off the engines, and watch the 7500 tons of gasoline of its own momentum shove toward that 30-foot sandbank and woods.  SO we hit it gently, and kept on going, crashing in and in, until the barge couldn’t go any farther, and tons of sand and earth caved in on top of it, along with several trees.

So there we were nosed into the shore. Birds sang sweetly, a tanager caroled, a Carolina wren, a titmouse, a grosbeak, while the CAPE ZEPHYR drifted off and was floating cross-wise, helpless downstream toward the nearest sandbar, when the oilers squirted oil in the rudders, or something, they caught hold, and we squared away at last. But it took two deckhands four hours to shovel about eight tons of sand off the front of that barge … right there where I liked to sit on the starboard winch.

One of the little Items which remained with the sand — twigs of deciduous holly in bloom.

rib roast and raisin pie for dinner, along with mashed potatoes, beans, salad, carrots, cornbread.

supper — pork chops, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, cauliflower, biscuits, jello with whipped cream.

In the afternoon I sunbathed and napped — what an utterly useless and lovely life. This is none of I!

At Opossum Chute there were big sandbar boils in the middle of the river. Still a cold wind and a beautiful sunset, with many thousands of tree swallows flying, swooping, darting very low to just touch the water.  Also herons in flocks. Saw Venus and Mercury in the west. Night and the stars were very bright, with a sheaf of alto cumulus moving over like a great white wing.

And there came again that river smell, the willow smell, cool on the sunset, part of the river, essence of a million willows, past and present and future.

The Big Greenville bridge and the river gage, the steamboat WAKE ISLAND streaming black smoke in the moonlight. The river pale and very broad.