Cincinnati-Rolling Down A River
Cincinnati · Ohio River · Mississippi
The ElixirTraveling With Mark Twain
The American Queen, baseball legends, river history, and the call to move, move—move.
Blue Water Meets Brown Water
Steamboatin’ River Cruising
Blue-ocean cruising has its charm and appeal. So does steamboatin’ river cruising.
Talk about “rock me on the water.” There is not much Dramamine being handed out on the flat rivers of Ohio, Tennessee, and even the mighty Mississippi.
How cool is it that the American Queen steamboat docks beside the Reds’ stadium on the riverfront? What a way to see the Ohio River Valley.
Docked in Cincinnati
Riverfront Arrival
Family Baseball Story
Jon Moscot
Great American Ball Park
Baseball Along the River
I could not help thinking about Mark Twain as a cub pilot and the baseball legends who played in towns along the Ohio, Tennessee, and Mississippi Rivers: Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and Jackie Robinson.
We were docked directly in front of Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park—the future home team of my nephew, Jon Moscot, then playing with the Reds’ Double-A affiliate, the Pensacola Blue Wahoos.
River Baseball
The National Pastime Meets the River
Cincinnati
Dockside at the Ballpark
Life on the Mississippi
The River as Biography
Life on the Mississippi is Mark Twain’s narrative of his days as a steamboat pilot on Ol’ Man River before the American Civil War and a later travel account of the route between St. Louis and New Orleans.
Twain writes with sincerity and irreverence. His lament in the original field note says it plainly:
“There is no unhappiness like the misery of sighting land—and work—again after a cheerful, careless voyage.”
Twain speaks to my own restlessness, the recurring requests of “anyplace but here” and “I want to be surprised.”
“All I do know or feel is that I am wild with impatience to move, move—Move!”
Paddlewheel
Steamboat Time
St. Louis · June 27, 2008
Flooding on the Mississippi
I respect water—blue ocean and river—the way one respects a wounded hippo. Keep an eye on it. You know it is deadly.
The Adventure Doctrine
Throw Off the Bowlines
The original field note uses this familiar call to adventure:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. Throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
The river calls to me: “I can help you lose your baggage without going to the airport.”
Ernest Hemingway’s advice in the field note is simple: “Don’t travel with people you don’t love.” Twain adds the test:
“There ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”
And I will never forget the line about the coldest winter being a summer in San Francisco.
Field Library
The Book Behind the River
Hotel @nyware
Following the Equator
In Hotel @nyware, I often use Twain’s lines to push the next piece of writing forward.
“Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company” inspired another island field note. Read that story.
Twain voyaged to South Africa and beyond. Another line inspired a post written in the Indian Ocean during my 2011 World Cruise.
“You gather the idea that Mauritius was created first, and then heaven; and that heaven was copied after Mauritius.”
It became my own version of Following the Equator.
Near Mauritius · 2011
In the Middle of Nowhere and the Center of Everything
On the internet at sea, inspired by Twain.
Steamboats Come True
The River Is Waiting
Rolling down the river made me think of John Fogerty and “Proud Mary”. It was playing on the radio as I drove back to St. Louis.
Another tune from his revival album was “The River Is Waiting.” The source link was malformed, but the title belongs here because the river was, in fact, waiting.
I needed to revise 9 Cruises I Had to Go On Before I Died.
Traveling the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Snake, and Columbia Rivers was now on the bucket list.
The River Equation
History + Movement + New Eyes = Steamboats Come True
American Queen