The end of the Delta Queen?

[tomarch]

Re: The end of the Delta Queen?

It would be nice if she went back to her home port of Sacramento, CA

[LindaTrent]

Re: The end of the Delta Queen?

Watched the Delta Queen disembark from Cincinnati tonight. It was pretty fascinating to watch the procedure to get her going on the river. There were quite a few people there including a couple who were filming her as she left and paddled west on the Ohio River. It would be a shame to see this icon go away.

I remember as a little girl of 10 or 12 years of age being with my parents who were checking in at the Lafayette Hotel, in Marietta. On our way up to our room we heard a cannon shot (that announced the Queen was about to turn the bend into Marietta) and then heard the whistle of the Queen. My parents and I quickly set our things down in our room and raced to the landing in time to see the steamboat come round the bend. It was like a scene right out of Tom Sawyer racing down to watch the magnificent ship come in.
From the landing we could hear the harmonious sounds of the calliope, and we watched as the white steam rose high above. Even now tears are welling up as I think fondly upon the days.

The allure of the Queen is the excitement that I felt as a little girl, very well could have been experienced by my own persona the first time she saw a steamboat on the river (yep, born 1815 if it's 1861 :D). For her, the steamboat was something that would forever change the way she viewed the world both visually and economically, since only about 3 miles from where she grew up turned to ship building, as did so many communities upon the River.

My own curiosities about steam and how a boat docks and disembarks are things that I marvel about today as I watch both the DQ and her sisters come and go; and it's probably something that my character would have marveled about sometime in her life as well.

True, she's not our period, but she's the closest thing that we still have. Her sisters won't be affected by this "lack" of legislation, but they're not the same thing as our historic and magnificent Delta Queen.

God Save the Queen!

Linda.