WOW. What a trip this has been. We were so spoiled on the American Queen. It’s a great way to travel and we had perfect weather all the way from Memphis to New Orleans – hot and steamy.
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Each day we would dock at a different location. Our first stop, Greenville, Mississippi, lays claim to the title of Hot Tamale Capital of the World … go
figure. They even have a Hot Tamale Festival each year.
One of our tour group members, Judy Heytman, had the best day of her life in this little place, which is quite close to the late BB King’s hometown of Indianola.
Disappointed she couldn’t get on the BB King tour, Judy went into town to have a look around. On her return, a local asked how she was going. Poor Judy told her exactly how frustrated she was at not getting to Indianola on the tour.
The woman, who was extremely well connected, drove Judy there and gave her the royal tour. She met the mayor and his wife, had lunch, listened to music, visited historic places, such as Club Ebony, BB King’s blues venue, and to top it off, met his daughter, Shirley King.
Needless to say, Judy came back to the boat floating on Cloud Nine! She lives at Port Stephens and enjoys travelling, chasing good music wherever she goes. I somehow think her Indianola experience will be hard to top.
The beautiful and historic city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, was next on our agenda.
In its heyday, cotton was king in Vicksburg and up to 350 steamboats would vie for space on the waterfront to take on their load of cotton.
Tamworth’s Prue Hartigan, who’s on the tour with her husband Rob, is somewhat of a gourmet entertainer.
When we got to Natchez, Prue booked into a cooking school, which involved a demonstration of making “biscuits” – our scones – and trying out lots of recipes courtesy of chef Regina Charboneau.
Prue was so enthused when she came back on board she popped into the American Queen galley.
One of the sous chefs, Chris, gave Prue a cook’s tour of the kitchen facilities. She was absolutely amazed at the quality and quantity of food turned out in such a small space.
The American Queen caters for 400 guests and about 150 staff – all of whom do an extraordinary job making travellers feel very welcome.
While Prue was slaving away over a hot stove, a group of us took a tour of the Charboneau rum distillery, which Regina’s husband Doug and son Jean-Luc operate.
That white rum packs quite a punch.
After the tour, we staggered next door to the King’s Tavern Restaurant, which is owned by Regina. Delicious flat-bread pizza to die for. Yum!
So much happens every day on this trip, it’s going to take me weeks to fill you in. You’d better just watch this space.