Memphis is a city of rock ’n’ roll, of late night bars, loud music and Elvis’s grandiose home, Graceland, but it’s also a great river port for voyages along the Mississippi, including those on that floating, paddlewheel and steam-powered palace, The American Queen
I BOARD HER AT THE NEW £28MILLION Beale Street Landing, located at the end of that frenzied nightlife strip, Beale Street. Featuring a promenade, park and concert space, it also has a revolutionary spiral, floating docking ramp that is built to cope with the near-60ft swell of the mighty river. Although many of her voyages head downstream to the cities, plantations and Civil War sites of Mississippi and Louisiana, my voyage is headed upstream for the small Midwestern port towns of Missouri and Illinois. Within a short time of leaving Memphis, we’re in the wilderness, the only other traffic being vast convoys of heavily-laden coal barges heading south. Our first stop is tiny New Madrid, Missouri, barely visible behind a towering levee. American Queen’s gaily-painted tour bus takes us just 200 yards to the local museum, which focuses on the series of earthquakes that, in 1811-12, helped bring this small town to the world’s attention. Vastly more intense than the 1806 San Francisco quake, the quakes caused church bells to ring as far away as Washington, DC, and set the river flowing backwards. The soothing onward journey brings home the reality of Mark Twain’s river tales as we cruise past sandbanks and little beaches, sweeping bends and tiny islands – sometimes we are so far from shore that it is like sailing down a deserted coast.
Our next Missouri port of call is picturesque Cape Girardeau, where we are greeted by a jazz band and local photographers. The city’s Victorian main street and a clutch of antiques shops are hidden behind a 15ft flood wall adorned by a 1,100ft-long mural of historic scenes. There’s more local history in the fascinating Cape River Heritage Museum, with its poster-sized photo of the town’s old river bridge being blown up at sunset.
A colourful waterfront mural at Cape Girardeau,Missouri
Our final call is bluff-top Chester, Illinois, where, we are told, the riverside road had been under water only days before. It’s best known as the birthplace of the famous comic strip character Popeye, created in 1929 by local cinema projectionist Elzie Segar. The cinema where she worked is now both a museum and a store and there are street statues of such main comic strip characters as Wimpy and Olive Oyl, whereas the one to Popeye is sited beside the visitor centre high above the river and near the bridge to Missouri.
Back on the river, the journey is mesmerising. At night, when I’m sipping a drink on the terrace next to the thrashing paddlewheel, there are no lights to see, just blackness. By day, it’s hypnotic, sitting in a rocking chair and gazing at the subtly-changing scenery. So, it’s a shock to wake up on our final morning moored beside St Louis, Missouri’s 630ft-tall, stainless steel Gateway Arch. Such a modern contrast to the 19th-century style riverboat I am soon to depart.
