Part 2: Mississippi River Road caravan -- St. Louis, MO to New Orleans, LA

Part 1: Mississippi River Road caravan -- Bedmiji, MN to Hannibal, MO preceded this post if you are interested in hearing about the first half of our caravan.

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9/15 - 9/18: St Louis, Missouri

After a good night's sleep we awoke to a group bus ride, first to the St Louis Arch where we all rode to the top and got great views of the city and then to a wonderful barbecue lunch downtown. Our final stop was the Melvin Price Lock and Dam and it's National Great Rivers Museum. Starting from the most northern dam and going south, this is the 26th of 27 dams/locks along the Mississippi. Unfortunately there wasn't a barge or any boats going through the lock at the time that we were there but it's size was impressive compared to the small locks that we've seen in Florida. 

Melvin Price Lock and Dam

This picture shows the lock and dam pairs along the Mississippi. The right arrow is set #4 we saw in Alma on our way to Prairie du Chien and the left red arrow is today's set.

The remainder of the Mississippi, south to the Gulf, doesn't need locks and dams to maintain a navigable depth.  

Our second day in St. Louis started with a tour of Forest Park. It is a prominent civic center that hosts numerous events, nature preserves, the local zoo, art and history museums, and more. Its biggest events were the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 as well as the summer Olympics that same year. We made a quick stop for picture at a large sculpture that portrays King Louis IX of France (1214-70), the namesake of the city of St. Louis, as a Christian soldier.

We then did a quick detour from the plan to head over to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis in the morning instead of afternoon as a special mass was going to occur for a visiting catholic dignitary and the building would be closed for our initially scheduled visit.

A church is a "cathedral" when it is the seat of the bishop.

A church is a "basilica" when it has been accorded that special designation, by virtue of its age, role, history, etc., by the Vatican. 

Looking forward at the altar in the Cathedral Basilica of St Louis

Cathedral Basilica of St Louis

Treat #1 for the remainder of our day was a long visit to the Missouri Botanical Gardens. They span almost 80 acres and include several restaurants (so a great place for lunch too), but they were extra special due to the exhibition of Chihuly glass sculptures. Our new cameras took amazing photos of the gardens with the glass sculptures sprinkled around and I have included the best of them here:

We closed the afternoon with treat #2, a tour at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery which not only included a walk through the local stable of resident Clydesdales but also several beer samples. Jeffrey even got extra because it was his birthday (okay, Maren helped him a little).

One of the lovely castle-like entrances to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. In the past, a train car could fit through the archway.

One of the Clydesdales greeting us

Our day ended with a driver's meeting to cover our next transit day as well as a short "social" where over 40 RVers sang Happy Birthday to Jeffrey. He even got a cupcake and balloons. Not a bad way to cap his first 60 years! Our final day in St. Louis is a "free" day with no organized group events -- a good day to catch up on laundry, get groceries, relax, etc. For us the day was an early rise at 5am so we could get Max to a Freightliner dealer nearby when they opened. There was concern that the coolant used when Max was "topped off" after he broke a hose a few days ago was not the "right stuff". Coolant technology has changed quite a bit in the last dozen years apparently so we opted to have the system completely flushed and refilled so there is not a mix of old and new.

9/19: Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Happy to say we had an issue-free drive to Cape Girardeau with the group the next day. It is a small town but has numerous points of interest including huge murals on their flood control wall that borders the Mississippi River. Definitely worth a walk to see them, read the placards describing what they are showing and a couple of yummy scoops of ice cream nearby. 

The river side of the mural flood wall

9/20 - 9/25: Memphis, Tennessee

The plan the next day was to drive to an RV park south of Memphis and use it as a home base for 3 days while we enjoy tours of the big Memphis sights. We happily didn't have any coolant issues but we started to hear thunkity-thunk sounds under Max as we went through rough road construction on the highway. If the roadway was smooth we didn't hear anything amiss at all. Erring on the side of caution, we found a truck center and slipped one of the service techs a few bucks to take a look and see if he could spot anything wrong. Sure enough he saw a stabilizing bar that had a bad "bushing" and suggested that we get it looked at sooner rather than later. Geez, this trip is costing us more and more money in repairs every day! 

The local Freightliner service center couldn't see us until the next morning, so we noisily proceeded to the group's RV park for the night and once again awoke way too early to drive back into town in the dark to be first in the "RV" service line. Happily the issue was easily diagnosed and a new "front track suspension bar" was ordered. The bad news is it will take a day or two to arrive. Our fellow travelers presented us with this sticker to affix to Max 🤣 

We deposited Max back to the campground and caught up with the group for lunch at B.B. Kings (having missed the morning tour of Sun Studios). We then visited the Memphis Rock & Soul Museum and marveled at how this city was the birthplace of rock and soul music by so many great pioneer artists, both white and black often playing together, during years of so many race barriers.

Rock & Soul Museum

The next day included a self guided tour of the National Civil Rights Museum, located at the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. We had been here years ago by ourselves but this visit was just as moving. From there we went over to the famous giant Cabela's sports store, located in a gigantic pyramid. It was initially built in 1991 as a venue for sporting and entertainment events, but the seating was not ideal. It was then a church for awhile before finally being bought and renovated by Bass Pro Shops. Besides having several restaurants, it also has the world's largest free-standing elevator (goes to the top for outstanding views of the city), a lake with boats in it, 5' long carp swimming around, and a crocodile exhibit. Oh, and they sell every kind of sporting and camping equipment you can imagine!

Balcony at the Lorraine Motel (the facade of which was preserved as part of the Civil Rights Museum) where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot.

The amazing Bass Pro Shop pyramid

Back on the bus and after a bonus drive-by of Graceland (a tour of which is part of a different Fantasy tour), we returned to the RV park for root beer floats and the driver's meeting for the transit instructions to Vicksburg in two days (tomorrow is a free day with no events). Jeffrey and I will be left behind so we can go back to Freightliner to get our new parts installed.

After watching our friends drive away in the morning, we used our "extra" free day to visit the Memphis Zoo. It was a good one and I'm just sorry we didn't see their panda as she was recalled to China this spring following the death of her companion. At least they had giraffe and a nice feeding station.

Maren thinks this fish looks half giraffe!

Feeding the zoo's reticulated giraffe

An Okapi -- only remaining species to share the Gariffidae family with the giraffe

We are up early again to drive Max to his service appointment to get the new front track suspension bar replaced. After 4 hours of labor, the technician brings him back and, to our horror, that wasn't the problem. Three more hours go by with tense discussions, test drives, and consultations with other specialists. At the very end of the day, the tech crawls under Max one more time and Jeffrey pushes on Max's side to get him "rocking". I join in and so does the service manager. Right as the 3 of us tire out and have to stop rocking, the tech hears the thunk! EUREKA! Another tech joins the first under Max and we rustle up 8 other guys and start rocking like mad -- and they finally find the culprit -- a broken shock! In their defense it was a really odd break and only showed itself when Max was rocking back and forth on it. They can have a pair of new shocks in hand at 9am in the morning so we plug Max in in their protected back lot and are off to a nearby Best Western for the night. What is (now) funny is that Maren mentioned several times over the last few days to them that the only time she had heard a noise similar to this was when we had a loose shock. Guess they didn't take this girl's input seriously! 🙄

As promised, shocks were installed first thing in the morning, the thunk is gone, the credit card is swiped (again) and we are on our way driving 340 miles to catch up to our caravan who are arriving in Natchez, Mississippi. Sorry but no picture of this debacle and we are sure you wouldn't want to see our tired and stressed faces! We have missed the stop in Vicksburg, Mississippi. 

9/26 - 9/28: Natchez, Mississippi

Today we went to Stanton Hall an 1850s mansion built on cotton money and spared any damage during the civil war because there were no troops or battles here. General MacArthur lived here for a while in 1952 and the Patrick Swayze miniseries North South was filmed here too.

Stanton Hall exterior. No interior pictures are allowed to be posted on the internet.

We were then treated to a horse-drawn carriage tour of downtown Natchez. Our stocky palomino haflinger horse was anxious to go, most likely due to getting the carrot treats he was due at the end.

Our next day was a "free" day which we used to do a little laundry, get a few groceries, and buy lottery tickets (which we only do when the Powerball lottery exceeds 500 million). We also had our last  driver's meeting to cover the transit to New Orleans. Our leaders also shared some delicious meatballs and other appetizer snacks with the group.

9/29 - 10/4: New Orleans, Louisiana

We had a nice, albeit bumpy ride to New Orleans the next morning. Sure hope Louisiana gets some funding to fix their terrible roads! After a fuel stop we arrived at the RV park in the middle of the pack and got settled before heading downtown in the car for my semi-annual blood labs to make sure my liver is still happy on a drug I take. It is convenient that I can do this anywhere in the country with a lab order from my Raleigh doctor. It was a harrowing drive with the New Orleans drivers so we rewarded ourselves with dinner at Blaze Pizza and were happy to get the car back to the campground unscathed. We witnessed several bad drivers and even red lights seemed to only be a suggestion.

Our first day of touring the area included the Laura and Oak Alley sugar plantations in Vacherie. Both were established in the early 1800s and had amazing family histories. Laura is a Creole Heritage site and Oak Alley is a National Historic Site. This area was captured and held by the Union early during the Civil War, and strangely, the emancipation proclamation excluded it because slave labor was needed to make food for the war. After the tours we were served a yummy creole buffet lunch. I think Jeffrey was dubious it would be too spicy, but it wasn't -- gumbo, sausage, red beans, corn, peas and peach cobbler or bread pudding for dessert.

Laura Plantation home

Oak Alley home viewed through the majestic oaks

The view of the oaks from the house

The next day was one we've all really anticipated -- a sea plane flight around the Mississippi river delta area followed by a swamp boat tour. Both were fantastic! Jeffrey and I had a plane to ourselves and our pilot, Vince, gave us a running personal commentary on all of the sights we flew over. This is the first time we've taken off and landed on the water in a plane and it was interesting -- a little rough due to the choppy little wind-swept waves on the canal we were using, but exhilarating too!

Our ride!

The amazing view of downtown New Orleans from our plane

Plane selfie

Our landing strip canal

The group's private swamp boat tour was punctuated by several close alligator encounters and a few bird sightings. Though it has been hot and humid these last few days, today has been more moderate with a nice breeze blowing.

Alligator from the swamp boat

Curious big heron

We separated from the group itinerary on the third New Orleans touring day, replacing a walking tour of the French Quarter with a day at the National World War II Museum. We have wanted to visit this museum for years and hadn't made it yet. If you ever plan to visit, save two days for the experience. It was really well done and so much to take in. We had to pick up the pace halfway through because we only had one day to spend there. Of course we told our caravan leaders we wouldn't be there that day and they were relieved to hear it wasn't because we had another issue with Max! 

Our final day was double fun. First a lunch at the New Orleans School of Cooking where we enjoyed a fantastic meal cooked in front of us -- Crab and Corn bisque, Chicken Étouffée, Banana's Foster and a homemade Praline. We were all stuffed full!

Our chef flaming the Banana's Foster

The bus brought us back to the campground and we had a "wrap-up" meeting where our leaders shared their thanks for our patronage of Fantasy RV Tours, commented on how great a group we were, and presented is with fun gifts to commemorate the trip. Our final bus ride took us to a dinner riverboat cruise -- our final float on the Mississippi! The boat had a calliope that was played while we were boarding and a live jazz band entertained us during and after dinner.

It was bittersweet to say goodbye to everyone the next morning. Most of us hit the road the same day to head toward our next stops. For us, it is back to central Texas. The map below shows the places we visited on this trip -- even the Freightliner shops that fixed us up three different times! 

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This concludes our Mississippi River Road caravan which started September 1 and ended October 4, 2023. 

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Part 1: Mississippi River Road caravan -- Bedmiji, MN to Hannibal, MO

9/1/23 - 9/3: Bedmiji, Minnesota

We started our 4th Fantasy RV caravan in Bedmiji, Minnesota with 24 other RVs. There are a few other full-time RVers like us, but most have traveled here from all directions in the US. Most were hoping to escape some of the summer heat in their home towns, but our first day out is in the low 90s (certainly not as hot as some areas of the country, but not pleasantly cool either).

Our tour started with a bus trip into Bedmiji town to see the long-standing woolen factory and get a group photo at the gigantic statues of Paul Bunyan and his oxen, Babe. Needless to say that Jeffrey and I didn't need any woolen wear since we generally spend our time in warm climates. Next up was visiting the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Itasca State Park. As is customary, we all shucked our shoes and had a nice wade in the shallow cool waters.

After a filling box lunch we then boarded the Chester Charles III for a lovely cruise on Lake Itasca. This boat was constructed in the late 1940s and had several jobs elsewhere prior to getting to it's current role.

9/4 - 9/7: Minneapolis, Minnesota

After a nice rest day, the caravan moved on to the next stop -- the Minneapolis area. It was a brutal hot high 90s day and the drive was no fun due to everyone else in MN driving home from Labor Day events plus several areas of construction. After arriving there was a "wood turning" demonstration at the campground's open pavilion. It was pretty interesting and at least in the shade! Most of us then melted back into our RVs for the evening (no campfire tonight THANK GOD!).

Getting on a tour bus the next morning for our first full day here, we spent the morning visiting Minnehaha Falls Park and St. Paul's Cathedral. Both were 'self guided" but interesting. The falls (which feed into the Mississippi River) didn't have much water to show off due to the drought, so it was more of a "Minnehaha trickle". Apparently it was also slow when President Johnson visited back in the mid-60s. They actually dammed the stream up-river in order to release it that day and have a decent fall flow during his visit. They also opened numerous fire hydrants nearby to contribute a little more water! The cathedral was grand and lovely and truly amazing in its size, craftsmanship, and history. 

Minnehaha Falls

St. Paul's Cathedral

After lunch downtown on our own, we headed to tour the Wabasha street caves. These caves were originally escavated in the early 1900s and were initially used as a mushroom farm. Regardless of the temperature outside, they remain at a chilly 55 degrees and have to be heated to be comfortable. It has since been many other things, most famously a speakeasy visited by many gangsters. It is still actively used today for private functions and as a weekly social dance hall and bar. We ended the day with a guide on the bus showing us around the twin cities and sharing their fascinating gangster history. 

Outside of the Wabasha Caves

It was during this day that Maren discovered one of the cameras on her cellphone (the most used one) was not auto-focusing properly. We bopped over to the local Verizon store after getting back to the campground hoping to get it fixed and instead walked out 90 minutes later with new phones -- both of us! The bad news is they weren't free but the good news is our pictures for the rest of the trip should be fantastic! 

First picture on new cellphone -- lights from the nearby casino

New cameras (I mean cellphones) in hand, we started the next day on a Mississippi River lunch cruise. It was an appetizer of watermelon followed by hearty meal of BBQ chicken, pulled pork, cornbread, roll, and potato salad, with cookies for dessert. Jeffrey was in heaven and I was thrilled to get his serving of bread and butter pickles. We passed several interesting bridges and saw four bald eagles flying along the riverside.

Our riverboat lunch cruise vessel

Lovely view from the boat

The afternoon was spent getting a collection of specialized tours in the old St. Paul court house, known today as the Landmark Center. It houses a number of historical and artistic collections, including glorious wood turning projects and hundreds of years of keyboard instruments -- from harpsicords to electronic pianos. I was especially excited when a fellow traveler pointed me to a hat in the giftshop that showed giraffe! Out came the credit card!

Interior atrium of the Landmark Center

Lovely large wood turned bowl

Wood bowl with intricate wood carvings

9/8: Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin

Our next driving day took us east back to the Great River Road following the Mississippi's path. It gave us some lovely views of the now-much-wider river. Along the route was a visit to the National Eagle Center where we were able to meet several bald eagles, all of whom have injuries that prevent them from surviving in the wild. We also enjoyed a private education session and another close eagle encounter before reboarding our rigs to continue to our campground-for-1-night just south of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. It was a long day on small bumpy roads (with ugly construction areas) so we looked forward to a homemade dinner provided by our tour leaders. 

Jeffrey at #4 Lock and Dam along the river in Alma

The ambassador bald eagle we got to meet up close

Showing us part of his wing span

9/9 - 9/12: Davenport, Iowa

We've decided that this particular trip -- like the one we did in 2021 that followed Lewis & Clark's expedition -- is as much about the journey as it is the destination. Our driver's manual with turn by turn instructions has been pages and pages long each day as it tries to keep us on the officially marked "Great River Road". Our trip to Davenport today was the same multi-page setup with numerous detours texted to us by our leaders as they encountered them ahead of "the pack". 

Today also had an enroute stop at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium but, being a busy Saturday with events going on, it was especially challenging for our leaders to get us all squeezed into the available parking areas as we arrived. Given how much we like most museums, we took our time viewing the extremely interesting exhibits, eating at the cafe, and browsing the gift shops. New Tshirt for Jeffrey in hand, we were one of the last of the group to return to our rig but had less than 90 miles left to drive to get to the new campground. 

As we got set up to leave, we first noticed that it was taking a little longer to "air up" on our airbags to our normal ride height. Turning off Max so we could hook up the car to be towed, we heard a continuous loud air hiss from near the back axel and Max began to sink back down. A frantic call to a nearby Freightliner truck service center discovered that they closed for the weekend in less than an hour. With the engine running we were able to maintain most of our air pressure and managed to drive the five miles to the service center without issue. The issue was a good sized leak in one of our rear air bags and, though they were willing to work late to install a new one 😀 they didn't have ours in stock ☹️. A new one would arrive Tuesday morning and Max couldn't go anywhere until then, but they thankfully had an electric hookup for him.

We packed what we needed for 2 nights in a hotel and drove the car to Davenport so we can be near our fellow travelers and participate in the tour activities that are scheduled over the next few days. Though we hate having an issue, the timing really was fortunate as the group doesn't move on until next Wednesday. We managed to get to the evening's dinner cruise just in time!

Hole in the $375 airbag

Lovely view of downtown from our boat

After a nice breakfast at the Best Western, we drive the car and park it at the group's campground and jump on the bus with everyone. Our day included a visit to Herbert Hoover's Presidential museum followed by the "Iowa 80 - The World's Largest Truck Stop" and the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum. We capped the day with an early private supper at the Circa Playhouse followed by two hours of outstanding dueling piano playing. I found it humorous that they looked at the silver hair in our group and started playing Sinatra-era music, but once we all started making requests it was Billy Joel, Elton John, and Tina Turner!

Truck Museum

Dueling Pianos

One more night in the hotel for us and we checked out and drove to Amana Colonies where we jumped on the bus filled with our group to get a guided tour. Established in 1855, by 1880 this was the largest communal society in America and it supported it's members in all aspects until 1932 when it transitioned to the Amana Society. Instead of everything being owned by the church, it's members now had greater opportunities, could earn wages, and even own homes. It has been well preserved and still farms, raises cattle, and supports numerous businesses, including Amana Appliances, now owned by Whirlpool.

Lovely Amana colony home

Local shop

Furniture shop

We were served a yummy family style lunch at the The Ronnenburg restaurant and then Jeffrey and I split off from the group to drive back to Max for the night. On the way we stopped in Cedar Rapids and had a nice visit with RV friends, Dawn and Jeff Marlin at their "Iowa" home. We'll see them again in Florida this winter when they transition to their RV, currently parked near Gainesville.

By early afternoon the next day we had two new rear airbags and we're on our way to spend the last night with the group in Davenport, Iowa. Thankfully that was a mostly free day with no organized activities so we didn't miss any big events of the tour. 

9/13 - 9/14: Hannibal, Missouri

In the morning we followed the prescribed driving path down the Mississippi River road to Hannibal, Missouri, most famously known as the birthplace of Mark Twain. Next to the campground is Mark Twain's cave. He spent a lot of time exploring this cave system as a child and it was featured in some of the stories he wrote about Tom Sawyer. 

Mark Twain cave system -- our tour followed the red line

Entering the cave

Hearing stories about the cave as our guide led us through it

The next day we did tours of the Mark Twain Interpretive Center, his museum, his boyhood home, the "Huckleberry Finn House" (a reconstruction of his friend, Thomas Blankenship's house), his father's law office, and the actual home of childhood friend Laura Hawkins (who was the inspiration for character Becky Thatcher). We had lunch at the Mark Twain Diner where we indulged in homemade rootbeer. Our final stop of the day was at Mark Twain's Winery where we enjoyed watching a Mark Twain impersonator tell a number of stories from Mark Twain's life. 

Our impersonator

Mark Twain's boyhood home

Our next driving day was supposed to be to St. Charles Missouri which is right next to St Louis. We only got about 7 mi down the road before getting a low coolant alarm in Max and having to pull over. After 12 years of living full-time, we had our first experience calling our RV roadside assistance plan for help. Assuming we would need to be towed to a shop for some type of repair we waited patiently along with the "tail- gunner" couple of the tour until they were sure that we were going to be taken care of. We even had a local Hannibal police officer watching over us with lights on to ensure the very-little-traffic road we were on didn't pose any danger.

A tow truck finally showed up and the technician crawled under Max and saw that the problem was simply a coolant hose leak. He attempted a repair right there but the old clamp wouldn't hold sufficiently under pressure and we ended up driving to his shop where he was able to install a brand new hose and clamp. We were thrilled we didn't have to get towed as this is complicated for a long RV like ours and can be problematic if not done properly. We finally pulled into the new campground where the tour is staying for the next three days, just in time to join in the group potluck dinner. It was a long and stressful day and we were glad it was over!

The tow truck, us, and the police officer. Happy we didn't have to get towed!

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This concludes Part 1 of our Mississippi River Road caravan, September 1 through 14, 2023. The story continues in Part 2 here: http://marenandjeffrey.blogspot.com/2023/09/part-2-mississippi-river-road-caravan.html 

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