Heartland cruising on the River Explorer: a lazy barge cruise weaving through a tapestry of Midwestern landscapes

Cruise Travel, Nov-Dec, 2002 by Randy Mink, Karen Mink

With Indiana on one bank and Kentucky on the other, I was doing what I most like to do on river cruises--watch the parade of people and places while drifting leisurely past the backyards of America. Through my binoculars, I spied wildlife and waterfowl, families camping by the shore and boys fishing from rickety piers, back-porch cookouts and hilltop mansions poking above the trees. Just as eye-catching, in their own gritty way, were the power plants, factories, and barges piled high with jet-black coal.

Okay, it's not the South Pacific, but the scenery is almost exotic to me, a suburbanite more accustomed to subdivisions and shopping malls than pretty countryside and vintage river towns. And I certainly wouldn't get this perspective cruising in a car.

Rivers actually used to be the nation's highways, and though we've kind of turned our backs on these flowing passages our ancestors traveled, they're still prime transportation arteries--and a great source of nostalgia and wonder for tourists floating along on a luxurious hotel barge.

For eight carefree days last summer, we ate and slept aboard the 198-passenger R/B River Explorer as she plied the Ohio and Mississippi rivers at 6 to 10 m.p.h. Our weeklong "America's Junction" journey from Cincinnati to St. Louis paid visits to three Ohio River ports-of-call in Kentucky--Louisville, Henderson, and Paducah--before rounding the tip of southern Illinois and joining up with the Mississippi, where we stopped in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Just past Louisville, as our vessel went through the Ohio's McAlpine Locks, people waved from above the mile-long "bathtub" that lowered us downstream. One man asked, "Where are you going, New Orleans?"

"No, St. Louis," a passenger answered.

"Well, then turn right at the Mississippi," the observer advised.

A delightful detour from the fast lane, our River Explorer voyage was the most laid-back vacation we've ever had. There were few onboard activities to clutter our days, so my wife had plenty of time to read her books in a lounge chair, and I was in my glory roaming the top deck with binoculars and cameras, always anticipating what loomed around the bend. Our 12-year-old son indulged his passion for playing cards and board games--things we're usually too busy to do with him at home or on hectic themepark vacations.

Best of all, I never once put on a pair of long pants. Dress was strictly casual--so casual that shorts were standard attire, even at dinner in The Galley.

The flat-bottomed River Explorer, built in 1998 for New Orleans-based River-Barge Excursion Lines, comprises a pair of 295-foot former petroleum barges propelled by the Miss Nari, a tow-boat operated from the pilot house by remote control. The forward barge contains the dining room and other public facilities, while the aft barge houses 99 nearly identical staterooms on the Royal (main) and Platinum (upper) decks. Guest rooms feature a super queen or twin beds, full tub and shower, satellite television with VCR, telephone, mini-refrigerator, hair-dryer, and large picture-windows that open, plus those all-important binoculars. Platinum Deck rooms have balconies.

During the day, passengers gather on the Sky Deck, a spacious rooftop with a jogging/ walking track, two hot tubs, exercise room, and lounge chairs for sunbathing. Shade-seekers read books, knit, or make new friends at patio tables by the Under The Bridge Bar. River-watchers like me flit from one railing to the other, so not to miss anything in the water or onshore. There's always some breeze, even on the most sultry days.

Dedicated "river rats" can sightsee in airconditioned comfort in the Guest Pilot House, a replica of the real pilot house one deck above, featuring authentic pilot chairs, radar, navigation charts, and radio transmissions from the bridge. (The same forward view is available on stateroom TVs.) Walls of windows in the adjacent purser's lounge and dining room (a deck below)--and even in the exercise room--also keep the river in view, giving the three-level River Explorer an airy, open feel. Passageways are wide, and elbow room is never a problem. Our fellow passengers, mostly retirees, hailed from many Midwestern states and from as far away as Florida, California, and Connecticut.

For evening entertainment guests can attend performances in the showboat-style Sprague theater or help themselves to videos for in-room viewing. Live music ranges from bluegrass to Big Band sounds. But after 9:30 p.m. public rooms are empty. This is not a place for late-night carousers, and that's the way we like it.

We first saw this massive vessel after flying into Cincinnati and arriving at the Public Landing, a sloping concrete levee just blocks from the heart of downtown. At 730 feet in length, she dwarfed her neighbor, the Showboat Majestic, and every other craft that came near. A red-white-and-blue spectacle, the River Explorer draws waves and stares wherever she goes.

In late afternoon the next day our "house-boat" docked at the landing in downtown Louisville, next to Joe's Crab Shack. The riverwalk buzzed with horse carriages, roller bladers, and people walking their dogs. Steps away in sparkling new Waterfront Park, crowds were gathering for a free concert. Moored nearby were the Belle of Louisville, the oldest steamboat (1914) still in operation, and Towboat Annie's, a floating restaurant occupying a real towboat.