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American Heritage

Former names: queen of the mississippi, american eagle.

Cruise line American Cruise Lines

• New Orleans (Port NOLA Louisiana)
• Pittsburgh PA (Pennsylvania)

American Heritage current position

American Heritage current location is at Gulf of Mexico (coordinates 30.33828 N / -91.21706 W) cruising en route to BATON ROUGE. The AIS position was reported 3 minutes ago.

Current itinerary of American Heritage

American Heritage current cruise is 7 days, round-trip 7 Night New Orleans to New Orleans Cruise . The itinerary starts on 08 May, 2024 and ends on 15 May, 2024 .

Specifications of American Heritage

•   Itineraries
•   Review
•   Wiki

American Heritage Itineraries

American heritage review, review of american heritage.

The 2015-built (as "American Eagle") American Heritage cruise ship (fka "Queen of the Mississippi") is a stern-paddlewheel riverboat owned by ACL and operating Ohio and Mississippi river cruises departing from homeports New Orleans , Memphis TN , Saint Louis MO , Cincinnati OH .

Following a redesign and complete refurbishment in 2021-2022, the riverboat Queen of the Mississippi was renamed "American Heritage". Also fully-refitted and renamed were the fleetmates America (now American Splendor) and Queen of the West (now American West) .

The vessel is currently USA- flagged (MMSI 367648680) and registered in Port NOLA (New Orleans).

History - construction and ownership

The shipowner American Cruise Lines (ACL) is the USA's largest river cruise company (headquarters in Guilford Connecticut) operational since 1991. The company specializes in cruise shipping on the USA's largest navigable inland waterways (rivers and lakes) as well as in cruises along the US East Coast, US West Coast and Florida. All ACL vessels feature some of the industry's largest passenger cabins with private balconies, spacious lounges and outdoor deck spaces, gourmet cuisine, a top-quality enrichment program (with many complimentary land tours and excursions), highly personalized service by all-American staff and crew.

All ACL cruise ships are US-flagged and built by the company-owned Chesapeake Shipbuilding Yard in Salisbury (Maryland USA).

Unlike the old Queen of the Mississippi ship, the newbuild's crew quarters are on Deck 1 (instead od Deck 5) as Deck 5 houses balcony staterooms and suites. Most cabins (ranging 300-600 ft2) are with private balconies, so passengers can enjoy alfresco in-cabin dining. Traditionally, American Cruise Line serves local food, focusing on Cajun and Creole cuisine. The new riverboat also features small and large lounges, library, showroom, card room, putting green, complimentary self-service launderette, 3 PC terminals (Internet computers) and free WiFi access.

"American Eagle" was the name previously chosen for the new Queen of the new Mississippi ship. This large riverboat is a sister (with similar design) to American Pride . In 2015, ACL decided to rename the old Queen of the Mississippi to "American Pride" and the new vessel ("American Eagle") to be named "Queen of the Mississippi".

On August 4, 2015, ACL announced that the boat would be renamed (first to "American Eagle") and repositioned from Mississippi to Columbia-Snake River System in early 2016, and replaced on the Mississippi by the ship "America". Another new paddle-wheeler constructed at Chesapeake Shipbuilding assumed the name "Queen of the Mississippi". ACL has since listed on its website the old Mississippi ship's name as "American Pride".

The vessel's sister by design is American West/Queen of the West (cruising on Snake and Columbia rivers in Northwest USA). Both ships have stern-mounted paddlewheel (23-ton). It is driven by a hydraulic motor, powered by diesel engines. The ships are easily navigated by a couple of Z-drive units providing more maneuverability and higher cruising speed than typical riverboats.

American Pride  (the old Queen of the Mississippi ship) entered service in 2012. On August 4, 2015, American Cruise Lines announced that the boat would be renamed (first to "American Eagle") and repositioned from Mississippi to Columbia-Snake River System in early 2016, and replaced on the Mississippi by the ship "America". Another new paddle-wheeler constructed at Chesapeake Shipbuilding assumed the name "Queen of the Mississippi". ACL has since listed on its website the old Mississippi ship's name as "American Pride". A new sistership entered service in 2017 and was named " America (American Splendor since 2022) ".

Decks and Cabins

ACL's American Heritage riverboat has 6 passenger decks and accommodates 150 passengers in 78 staterooms . Accommodations include 6 Suites, 49 Balcony, 22 Riverview (with non-opening windows) in 7 grades.

All staterooms feature a private bath, window, interior entrance, Wi-Fi, are among the most spacious in the river cruising industry, with more space per guest than most riverboats. An all-American crew provides carefully personalized service.

Shipboard facilities and amenities

The ship offers overnight river travel deals within the continental United States. This big-sized riverboat gives new standards to America's most iconic river. The framework of modern cruising technology is beneath gleaming woodwork and ensures guests spend a most comfortable vacation. 

Restaurants, Lounges & Bars include: Grand Dining Salon (dining room), Natchez Lounge (shows), Magnolia Lounge (club), Paddlewheel Lounge (observation), Sky Lounge (observation), Upper Lounge (cards room), Mark Twain Library, Sun Deck (Promenade, an open-air observation lounge area with Top Deck Cafe bar, shaded seating, rocking chairs, live calliope music, putting green, outdoor gym).

American Heritage river cruise prices are per person (USD) and based on double occupancy. These are only indicative ACL cruise rates. They might be different when you book your USA river cruise deals, influenced by travel agency promotions, special offers and discounts, group travel booking or last-minute deals rates.

Itineraries

American Heritage cruises feature 7-night itineraries on Mississippi and Ohio rivers with departures from the ports of New Orleans LA, Memphis TN, Nashville TN and St Louis MO.

• (Mississippi cruises) round-trip from New Orleans, from Memphis to Nashville TN (Tennessee) from Nashville to St Louis, and from Nashville to Memphis
• (Mississippi and Ohio cruises) from Memphis to St Louis, and the reverse from St Louis to Memphis, also from St. Louis to Cincinnati
• ("Lower Mississippi River Cruise") from New Orleans to Memphis, and the reverse from Memphis to New Orleans
• ("Upper Mississippi River Cruise") from St Louis to St Paul
• ("Ohio River Cruise") from St Louis to Pittsburgh PA
• themed ("Grand Heartland Cruise") from St Paul to New Orleans
• themed ("Cumberland River Cruise") from Nashville to St Louis

Some of the ACL riverboat deals are on themed voyages. Among those themes are "Food and Wine", "Fall Foliage", "American Civil War", "Music", "Savories of the South", "Mark Twain Tribute", the Holiday-themed sailings for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. Follows the list of the boat's USA departure ports:

• New Orleans LA (Louisiana)
• Memphis TN (Tennessee)
• St Louis MO (Missouri)
• St Paul MN (Minnesota)
• Cincinnati OH (Ohio).

The list of visited states and ports of call (counties) along the American Heritage itinerary routes includes:

• Louisiana - Oak Alley (Vacherie), St Francisville (West Feliciana Parish), Baton Rouge (state's capital), Houmas (Burnside)
• Mississippi - Natchez (Adams County), Vicksburg (County)
• Kentucky - Columbus (Hickman County), Paducah (McCracken County), Louisville (Louisville-Jefferson County), Henderson (County), Maysville (Mason County)
• Missouri - Cape Girardeau (County), Hannibal (Marion-Ralls)
• Illinois - Chester (Randolph County), Cave-in-Rock (Hardin County)
• Indiana - Madison (Jefferson County)
• Iowa - Davenport (Scott County), Dubuque (County)
• Wisconsin - La Crosse (County)
• Minnesota - Red Wing
• Ohio - Portsmouth, Gallipolis, Marietta
• Tennessee - Dover, Clarksville, Nashville
• West Virginia - Point Pleasant, Wheeling
• Pennsylvania - Pittsburgh

ACL cruise deals are inclusive of the Internet (Wi-Fi), all tours/excursions, flight and coach transfers, live evening entertainment, daily expert lectures, food tastings, 24-hour coffee/tea, replenished daily bottled water, room service (twice daily).

American Heritage - user reviews and comments

Photos of american heritage.

American Heritage ship related cruise news

ACL-American Cruise Lines begins its biggest season ever on the Mississippi

ACL-American Cruise Lines has just commenced the biggest season ever on the Mississippi. In 2023, the company is introducing its new American...

ACL-American Cruise Lines opens 2023 season with American Star ship from Florida

ACL-American Cruise Lines announced that February 18th would mark the opening of the company’s 2023 U.S. cruise season when the American Star...

ACL-American Cruise Lines’ fleet expands to 15 small ships in 2022

The USA's largest river cruise company ACL-American Cruise Lines announced that the renaming of their riverboat fleet was complete and the company...

ACL-American Cruise Lines renames and redesigns 4 paddlewheel ships

ACL-American Cruise Lines announced plans to redesign, fully refurbish and rename its 4 paddlewheel ships. The paddlewheelers will get a new...

•   show more news

Other American Cruise Lines cruise ships

• ACL American Eagle
• ACL American Glory
• ACL American Legend
• ACL American Liberty
• American Constellation
• American Constitution
• American Countess
• American Duchess
• American Empress
• American Harmony
• American Independence
• American Jazz
• American Melody
• American Pride
• American Queen
• American Serenade
• American Song
• American Spirit
• American Splendor
• American Star
• American Symphony
• American West

American Heritage Wiki

Queen of the Mississippi riverboat cruises in the USA and offers unique travel experiences on a market that was once booming, later dormant, present-day exotic - and like no other. The Mississippi river paddle boats were the "cruise ships of the old", delivering both pleasure travel and cargo shipping services in the US in the late 1800s. But unlike her predecessors, the Queen of the Mississippi boat offers amenities and comforts unseen in these destinations before - including large-sized cabins with private verandas and bathrooms, Wi-Fi Internet, classy room service, lifts (to all decks), complimentary land tours and themed entertainment.

The cruise ship is a classic sternwheeler (paddle-wheeler) starting its first cruise on December 25, 2016. The vessel features floor-to-ceiling sliding doors in all staterooms and the industry's most spacious cabins with private balconies (stateroom sizes vary between 268-460 ft2 / 25-43m2).

This vessel, by its paddlewheel riverboat design, is sister to the fleet mates  American Pride (the old "Queen of the Mississippi" /2012) and America (2017). It is also similar to Queen of the West/American West (fleetmate) and to American Empress  and  American Queen  (both of the American Steamboat Company's fleet).

The paddle-wheel is a feature component of the ship's propulsion system. The wheel is driven by a hydraulic motor, which is powered by two Caterpillar marine diesel engines (type "CAT C32 ACERT"). The boat's paddlewheel is the main propulsion unit, to which for better maneuverability and higher service cruising speeds are added 3x Azimuth thrusters. These modern marine propulsion units are also known as "Z-drives". They are both fully submerged under water and able to rotate at 360 degrees.

Despite the fact that this so famous riverboat is powered by marine diesel engines, many call Queen of the Mississippi "steamboat". The reason is that the ship is a design replica of the US glamorous riverboats which used to sail on the country's largest rivers of the South (Mississippi and Ohio,) and in the Pacific Northwest (Snake and Columbia) in the late 1800s. Also known as "paddle steamers", they were all driven by the steam power rotating their stern paddle wheel. The alternative riverboat design was with two wheels mounted at the sides.

The ship's 7-night / 8-day itineraries are on Columbia and Snake Rivers with one-way departures from Portland Oregon and Clarkston Washington.

The new Queen of the Mississippi ship was christened (as "American Eagle") on April 25, 2015. The naming ceremony was held on the ship's bow, led by the vessel's godmother Cheryl P. Landrieu (US attorney, wife of New Orleans' Mayor M Landrieu. The ceremony was also attended by Charles Robertson (American Cruise Lines' CEO)and featured a cappella concert by Victory Belles (trio orchestra).

Following the christening ceremony, American Eagle departed on the 7-night Inaugural Cruise on Lower Mississippi River, with call ports Natchez, Vicksburg, Saint Francisville and Vacherie. The riverboat's name was changed in 2016.

This riverboat features advanced water purification equipment that minimizes the effects of greywater discharges into the Mississippi River. The hydraulic paddlewheel (at the stern) benefits from three Z-drive azimuth propellers (aka azimuth thrusters) rotating 360 degrees.

Next infographic shows American Pride cruise ship (Queen of the Mississippi's and America's sister-ship). Here you can see what is what and where on these unique riverboats.

Note: You can see the CruiseMapper's list of all river cruise ships and riverboats in the "itinerary" section of our  River Cruises  hub. All companies and their fleets are listed there.

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Booking Terms & Conditions

2024-2025 MISSISSIPPI RIVER CRUISE AND AIR FARES: Offer applies to bookings made from May 1-31, 2024. Terms & conditions for select promotions may vary. $25 deposit is applicable to all River itineraries. Special fares plus up to FREE roundtrip airfare valid on select 2024 and 2025 Mississippi River departures. Airfares may vary on other gateways & departures. Airfare does not have to be purchased to get cruise\cruisetour offer. All prices are in US dollars and for US residents only. Additional restrictions may apply. 2024 : Pay in full by May 31, 2024 or at time of booking if within 120 days of departure. 2025 : Pay in full by August 31, 2024. Offers expires May 31, 2024.

$25 DEPOSIT: For itineraries 35 days or less, a $25 deposit applies to October 2024 & onward departures; for itineraries greater than 35 days, a $25 deposit applies to December 2024 & onward departures; World Cruise products excluded; call for details.

AIR UPGRADE:  Upgrade to Business Class air from $999 per person addon based on select gateways and dates. Additional airline-imposed baggage charges may apply; for more information visit  Airline Luggage Restrictions  . Air prices are per person based on cruise/cruisetour check-in date and include transfers plus all government taxes/fees of approximately $160 and air fuel surcharges. Air seats are limited; airfares are subject to change and are not guaranteed until full payment of air is received. For more information about customized air services and US gateways, visit the  Viking Air Plus  page.

GENERAL RESTRICTIONS:  Cruise fares listed are cruise only in U.S. dollars, per person, based on double occupancy. Single supplement savings are off applicable rates. Cruise fares listed are valid for U.S. residents only. Cruise ship fuel surcharge may apply. All fares and offers are for new bookings only and are subject to availability, may not combinable with other offers except Viking Explorer Society Travel Credits and Viking Referral Rewards, are capacity-controlled and may be withdrawn at any time without prior notice. Special fares are based upon published full brochure fares; cruise fares do not include pre-paid charges, optional facilities and service fees, and personal charges, as defined in the terms and conditions of the  Passenger Ticket Contract  which may be viewed elsewhere on this website. Full brochure fares may not have resulted in actual sales in all stateroom categories and may not have been in effect during the last 90 days. Promotional fares may remain in effect after the expiration date. Air promotion applies to roundtrip flights only from select Viking Cruises U.S. gateways and includes airport-to-ship or hotel transfers, air taxes and air fuel surcharges. Roundtrip airport transfers are included when air is purchased with a cruise or cruisetour package; if air is not purchased from Viking, transfers may be purchased separately. All transfers must be in conjunction with a Viking-purchased cruise, cruisetour, land extension or extra hotel nights. Viking reserves the right to correct errors or omissions and to change any and all fares, fees and surcharges at any time. For up-to-date prices, please call Viking or your Travel Agent. The cruise ship fuel surcharge is additional revenue to Viking Cruises, as are any additional charges relating to currency fluctuation other than for fully paid cruise fares and full fares, which fluctuations are beyond our control. Additional terms and conditions may apply. Complete terms and conditions may be found in the  Passenger Ticket Contract  .

AIR OFFER RESTRICTIONS:  Offer expires May 31, 2024.

NOTE:  International flights depart the U.S. one day prior to check-in date. Paid Business or Premium Economy Class may require travel in economy on flights within North America or Europe. Premium economy is limited to specific airlines and we may not be able to accommodate based on aircraft type and availability. Roundtrip airport transfers are included when air is purchased with a cruise or cruisetour package; if air is not purchased from Viking, transfers may be purchased separately. All transfers must be in conjunction with a Viking-purchased cruise, cruisetour, land extension or extra hotel nights.

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• June 29, 2024, August 3, 2024, October 5, 2024
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Dallas Trombley's

2,000 miles down the ohio and mississippi–pittsburgh to new orleans by raft.

Ever since I was 21 and planning to build my first boat on the Hudson River , I’ve daydreamed about taking a raft down the Mississippi. Thirteen years later, I’m actually doing it. Starting on September 1st, 2018, I’m leaving from Pittsburgh on a homemade boat, and hoping to get to New Orleans about three months later.

I just launched a Kickstarter campaign, to raise $7,000 for the trip , which you can visit for details on the upcoming project. In the meantime I just wanted to tell all of my family and friends about my plan.

I started drawing the plans, making a schedule, setting a budget, and gathering materials back in January. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I looked at some of the designs for my previous boats and picked out the best parts. The new boat actually incorporates pieces of all of the rafts I took down the Hudson, plus hardware from a sailboat I bought but never used, a motorboat I bought but never used, several canoes, a sunfish, and a rowboat. For that reason, I decided to name her Float of the Phoenix .

As you can see from the picture above, I designed the boat to be two boats. The front 20-feet are essentially a floating barge with an 8×16 foot cabin. In this barge are rooms for me and my partner on this trip, Sam, a commode, a galley, and a bar. This barge will be propelled, very slowly, by two electric trolling motors (which I have left over from my Hudson River trips), as well as a small 4.5 horsepower engine. These motors will be enough to steer the boat, but hardly enough to push it into a headwind or upriver against a current. At the back of the living-space/barge, the boat interfaces with the speedboat which I bought in March. The speedboat has a 50 horsepower engine, which can propel the entire rig at around 3 mph. (Given that the current on the Mississippi runs around 3-4 mph, this would provide 7-8 mph movement relative to the shoreline when piloting the boat downstream). Or, the speedboat could be detached, the barge could be piloted alone or remain anchored, and the speedboat can travel 35 mph. Kind of like how the starship Enterprise-D has can separate its battle bridge from its saucer section. The combination of the two crafts gives us the space to live and store supplies, and the security to bring equipment like computers, but also a one-day range of 60 or more miles if one person stays with the barge while the other uses the speedboat.

I discussed the boat design with Mike, my partner on the Hudson River trips, during the first three months of this year. The main points were how big to make the vessel, how to get it to Pittsburgh (the only water route to the Mississippi is through the Great Lakes, over Michigan, through a canal at Chicago, and down a portion of the Upper Mississippi, which would add thousands of miles to the trip), and what to use for floatation. I decided I had to transport the boat over land in a Uhaul, so each piece had to be de-constructible to portions small enough to fit into the bed of a truck. I also decided that the best kind of floatation would be pontoons, as opposed to a displacement hull. We tried looking for second-hand pontoons from a pontoon boat, but they cost thousands. I contacted a company from New Zealand that makes plastic pontoons, but they said that the cost of transporting them to the U.S. would be many factors higher than the cost to me to purchase them. I thought about building my own pontoons out of plywood, but I’ve never been able to make them hold water, and they would cost a lot of money and time. I thought about using large-diameter sewer pipe, but, again, only one store stocks them in my area and they wanted $400 for a 16-foot pipe. Meanwhile, other years I have used 55-gallon plastic barrels and they worked great. I used to buy them for $13 apiece from a gourmet tomato sauce factory in Catskill, but they’re out of business. It takes 450 pounds to submerge a 55-gallon barrel. They are 2.5 feet in height. I could make two pontoons, each from seven barrels laid end-to-end, which would give me 6,300 pounds of displacement. I found a car wash in East Greenbush that sold the barrels for $10 apiece. They got their detergent delivered in them. So Dad and I drove across the river and got them on a rainy Sunday afternoon in March. In case you’re wondering, a standard pickup bed fits exactly 14 55-gallon drums standing upright. We brought the barrels to my parent’s house in New Baltimore, where, for the previous month, I’d been creating a work area in the woods behind their house.

The problem with using barrels on a boat as opposed to a dock is that barrels are designed to float, but not to cut through water. The way most docks are designed, and the way I’d designed Assiduity back in 2009 (on which this vessel’s design is loosely based), the barrels are tucked up under the decking of the dock, strapped into place individually with fire hose, and there are gaps between each barrel of several inches. When a boat constructed this way is pushed through the water, not only the first barrel but every barrel gets pushed through the water, creating drag. Meanwhile, every vessel has a hull speed , which is the speed at which the vessel moves through the water most efficiently. Hull speed is based on the length and shape of a hull. Basically, when the bow of a hull cuts through the water, it creates a wave. At slower-than-hull-speed, that wave breaks along the sides of the boat, creating drag. At hull-speed, the wave breaks immediately behind the motor at the stern of the boat, creating the least amount of frictional resistance. (Boats can travel above hull speed, but it requires exponentially more power AKA fuel consumption for every integer increase in speed).

To overcome the problem of 14 barrels making 14 individual waves, I decided to combine the barrels into pontoons. This would come with a double benefit: not only would I greatly decrease the drag on the boat by presenting a solid shape to the water, but in the event that any part of a pontoon is punctured, it would only damage 1/7 of the pontoon, because each pontoon is composed of seven individually-sealed barrels.

I could only think of fiberglass for combining the barrels. And before I could fiberglass I had to get the barrels into a pontoon shape at least temporarily. I decided to use Gorilla Tape. It took me one day of working alone, and a few hours with my friend Andrea, to get the pontoons duct taped together. For ease of transport, we made two sets of 4-barrel long pontoons, and two sets of 3-barrel long pontoons.

Now the fiberglass cloth could be laid across the barrels without falling into the spaces between them. It didn’t matter that the duct tape will eventually not hold up to the stress. It just needed to hold the barrels together until the fiberglass hardened the barrels into a single shell.

Fiberglassing is not fun. You have to use an epoxy, which is a two-part chemical that hardens when mixed. A “hardener”–the smaller container in the picture–is mixed with a “resin”, which begins the reaction. The mixture has to be exact, a few drops too much hardener and the mixture will cure in just a few minutes; too few drops and it will never harden. The cheapest epoxy I could find was from Older Timer Industries, on Amazon, for $87 a gallon. [TIP: If you’re ever using epoxy to fiberglass, get all of your materials set up first, like your brushes, and your fiberglass strips cut to size, because once you mix the epoxy you’re working against a ticking clock. Also, put the hardener into your mixing container first, and the resin on top. It is counterintuitive but it will help you mix the materials together more easily.]

Fiberglass also is not cheap. Luckily I had a roll laying around since 2010 when I built my last boat. Fiberglass comes in a long roll. You lay it on whatever you’re building or fixing and then you paint the epoxy on it. The epoxy gets absorbed into the threads of the fiberglass and when it hardens it makes a composite of a hard kind of amber with strong fibers running through it. It’s the same principle that makes bricks, which are dried mud and straw, so much stronger than just dried mud or straw. There are two tricks with fiberglass. The first is to select the right weave size as you’re buying it. Too small a weave (less than, say 1.5 oz) and you need to put many layers on before you get a good amount of strength; too big a weave (say, over 5 oz) and it gets hard to get the epoxy to permeate the weave and make a strong bond (although you could fix this problem by contacting an epoxy supplier and getting them to make you an epoxy with a lower viscosity). The second trick is to cut the fiberglass into the largest strips that can go around whatever curve you’re fiberglassing without wrinkling. You can bend fiberglass a little bit better than you can wood or plywood, which can only bend along one axis at a time, but if you try to fiberglass over a long conical surface with a sheet of ‘glass the size of a bed sheet you’re going to end up with a lot of wrinkles because it won’t lay flat.

In the picture above, I could use one long sheet of glass, because the barrels are cylindrical but not conical. That is to say, the fiberglass only has to bend in one direction–down–not sideways or diagonally.

Once I finished fiberglassing the pontoons, I started to think about what I could put on the front of them to make them cut, rather than plow, through the water. I discussed the idea of making shapes out of cardboard and taping them in place at the front of each pontoon and then fiberglassing them, with my father, but he had another idea. Back in the woods, I’d left my 2010 boat, Assembly Required , for the last eight years. Mike and I had made that boat by covering a canoe with plastic wrap and then fiberglassing it and taking the mould off when it hardened. So it had two bows made of fiberglass that were shaped like canoe bows. I took a saws-all and cut these tips off [insert mohel joke here].

It was a little janky trying to attach the tips of Assembly Required to the bows of the pontoons, because the tips widened a little wider than the barrels. Eventually the barrels would be sort of arrow shaped ====> rather than completely flush.

Next we took more fiberglass and used it to attach the tips to the pontoons. Sam came down to help on this part of the project. He is going with me on the trip. It helps tremendously to have a second person around when epoxying, or carrying something heavy, or framing, or traveling 2,000 miles down the Ohio and Mississippi over three months.

Mike always suggested filling anything close to the water with foam for extra protection. I decided to fill the pontoon tips with foam because they were the most likely to hit something. If they sprung a leak, the water could only fill as much space as not taken up by the foam I put in. I cut pieces of foam from a sheet of 2″ insulation foam I’d had lying around since 2012, and then I sprayed expanding foam into all the crevices. I used two cans.

Then it was time to duct tape the tops of each pontoon, to present a solid surface for the fiberglass.

Then I coated the whole kit and caboodle with more layers of fiberglass. The 1″ stick in the picture is in place to help the boat track through the water (move in a straight line).

In the meantime, I happened to see on Facebook Marketplace that a man in Castleton, across the river from Coeymans, was selling a rowboat for $200. I wasn’t quite sure how to support the deck of my barge if it was going to be 12-feet wide as planned, because the floor joists would have to stretch over eight feet unsupported between the pontoons. If I had something like a rowboat between them, it would provide support beneath the deck and also give me a lot of storage space. I checked out the boat, it seemed in good shape, it was light enough that two people could lift it, it was made of fiberglass, it was approximately the same depth as my pontoons, and it had flat gunnels (side walls) so that I could run the floor joists of the barge across and they would sit evenly. I bought the boat, Dad drove his truck up to Albany, met Sam and I, and we brought it back to New Baltimore. Sam and I tried the boat out in the Hudson with a trolling motor and found she moved well, and I needed just to patch a small hole in the stern and to get a bilge plug to fill the bilge hole.

Now it was time to paint the pontoons with a pigmented “gel coat.” I actually did not do this. The gel coat I bought off of Amazon was the wrong product, and I was in a hurry to get the pontoons done (I only had one whole day and one morning a week to work on the boat during May). Instead I bought an “epoxy paint”–which I had never heard of before–from Shady Harbor Marina in New Baltimore. I could choose from green or red. I thought green was more woodsy.

I used the green epoxy paint on the bottom of the rowboat, too, and put about ten coats on the seam on the transom where the rowboat leaked. When I was finished, it was nice to see the three hulls all matching in color.

But it’s as important to wear latex gloves when using epoxy paint as it is when using epoxy! I had been in a hurry that day and didn’t want to bother. Bad choice. After washing with gasoline, soap and water, and a pumice stone, this was the best I could do. I had to wait tables that night looking like I had moldy fingernails.

The pontoons had taken almost a month and a half to finish. The reason they took so long was because I work on the boat in New Baltimore, and live and work in Albany as a waiter. Generally I would leave Albany at 8 a.m., put a coat of fiberglass on the pontoons between 8:45-11:30, and then I would have to drive back because it would take at least two hours for the epoxy to harden.

The decking was much more straightforward framing work, except that I had to plan it in sections which could be easily moved and transported.

The final boat will be 12×20, which dimensions are easily divisible by four, to keep my cutting to a minimum. (Plywood comes standard in a 4×8 foot sheet; 2x4s come standard in 8-foot lengths.)

I brought the two front sections of the pontoons and the rowboat down into my parent’s yard, where it is flat, and where there are electrical outlets nearby. I placed the hulls within a 12-foot square.

The front of the pontoons (pictured above to the left and right of the rowboat) were almost exactly 12-feet in length, as was the rowboat, so that I could frame a deck by building three 4×12 foot sections of deck and bolting them together to produce a 12×12 foot deck, or 144 square feet. [144? Gross!]

I’d gone to the hardware store to buy the pre-treated 2x4s for the decking, but I forgot about all the bracing I would need, every 16-inches between the crown and base plates of the deck frame, to support the plywood. So I went around the “boat graveyard” in the back of my parent’s house and took all the 2x4s off of my old contraptions, raided my workshop for odds and ends, and ended up with the 30 pieces of 45″ joists that I needed.

This was June 7th. Dad and I framed out the deck sections in the yard during the mid-late afternoon (I happened to have a Thursday off).

Many hands make light work. I have a paragraph in Coming of Age on the Hudson about how one extra person does not cut your labor time in half, but by 4/5, because one extra person just makes it so much easier to frame something or cut something by holding the other end of a board so you don’t have to make a jig or hold a board in place with your foot while putting a screw in with your left hand and holding a screw gun in your right. Anyhow Mike and Sam (my friend from last year’s Hudson River boat) came down on Thursday evening and helped me bolt the frames together. Sam was much better than I am at drilling holes so that the bolts pass through in a straight line and don’t get stuck in the wood (because he measured everything precisely), and I asked Mike to focus on how to make a jig that would allow for the 4.5 hp gas motor to vice onto the back of the boat.

I took a 12-foot board and bolted it through the 4×12-foot sections to hold them all in place. When we were done, I could really see what the dimensions of the boat would be.

Loading the Pieces Individually

As I said, I had to construct the pieces in fragments small enough that I could lift them with one other person, and they could fit in a pickup truck, because I will have to disassemble the whole craft and ship it to Pittsburgh. On Friday of last week, Dad and I unbolted everything Mike and Sam and I had bolted together the day before, and shipped it to my friend Jake’s island on the Hudson River.

I was glad to see that we could load all of the deck pieces as well as the two front-halves of the pontoons into the bed of the pickup truck, as planned.

We brought all of the materials to Jake’s island. They would be safe there, so that Sam (the other Sam, who is going on the trip with me), and I could assemble them on the beach inside Jake’s island’s cove on Monday, when we both had a day off of work at the restaurant at which we are jointly employed.

Assembling the Boat for the First Time

On Monday, June 11th, I picked Sam up at his apartment and we drove to New Baltimore to assemble the deck on the pontoons. We hadn’t yet tested the pontoons, or the rowboat after I’d (attempted to) fix the hole in the transom. We drove to Brigg’s Island, the island of which Jake is the caretaker and where we’d build the boat. Brigg’s Island is 1/2 mile south of Coeymans and forms the northern boundary of the Hannacroix Creek. Jake maintains the northern tip, where he has a dock with a sailboat that he and his friends are fixing up. There is a very steep staircase that leads down from the north cliff of the island to the river. To the left of this staircase is an outcropping of rock which protrudes north toward Coeymans. This outcropping creates a natural, small, beach bay approximately 100 feet across. The bottom of this bay is sand. The bay is made of sediment which flows into the bay from the tidal action of the Hudson, because the north side of the island has been filled with silt from dredging the Hudson, so that the “island” is technically now a peninsula, although the easiest access to this bay is from the tip of the island, which Jake owns, by boat, rather than overland, through the jungle which has grown from the deposited silt over 95 years.

I wanted to assemble the boat on the sand beach within the bay, because I was wary of the effect of frequent tides and wakes from barges and speedboats jarring the boat as I took several weeks to assemble it. I preferred to bring the materials to the beach and anchor it in such a way that 3/4 of the time, the boat would be beached (and therefore immune to the effects of wakes, tides, and winds) while 1/4 of the time it would float, so that I could come to the island and test the buoyancy of the pontoons and the motive power of the outboard.

So, Sam and I had to carry the pontoons and the frame down a staircase to the very tip of the island, which is composed of broken rocks which are submerged for 1/2 of the day and dry the other half, and get the pieces around a sheer outcropping where our only choice was to carry each individual piece while wading hip-deep through moss-covered rocks (an endeavor which would require several hours).

Instead, I proposed that we carry the rowboat to the river’s edge at the bottom of Jake’s cliff, load the framing, screws, and tools on top, and I would wade around the island pulling the boat by a rope. Sam agreed, mostly because I emphasized that this was objectively the safest and most time efficient plan.

First we carried the pontoons, individually, down the staircase to the water’s edge. We put them in the water and they floated perfectly. I swam each one to the rock outcropping and shoved them into the cove, because the waves would push them onto the sandy beach just a few yards away. Then we carried the decking down and put it on the center hull.

Sam commented, “Dude, I feel like we’re in the 1800’s on the Erie Canal.” As I pulled him, inside the boat, around the corner of the precipice and dragged him and the boat onto the beach, he sang, “…fifteen miles on the Erie Canal.”

When we’d drove, carried, and pulled the materials into the cove, we were overcome by the picturesqueness of the scene.

After all, what were our friends doing at that moment? They might have been in an office, working at a service job, overcoming a hangover, or playing video games. None of that could compare with the present, in which Sam and I were assembling pieces of our creative projection on a beach on a beautiful spring afternoon.

We assembled all the pieces, vice-gripped the trolling motor and marine battery into place, and installed the 4.5 hp outboard motor, to give it a shakedown trial. The electric motor carried us easily into the river, and then the outboard started up on the first pull, and moved us at least 3 mph. We went south to the mouth of the Hannacroix Creek, in New Baltimore, which is the one 1/4-mile of the Hudson River that I have visited by boat more than any other part of the 150 mile stretch from Albany to NYC (and I have gone past places like Coxsackie or Poughkeepsie four or six times.) I took this picture from the first evening we tried out the motors on the boat.

It was a really grand time putting the boat together with Sam on a deserted beach with tug boats and yachts going up the river and the sun coming down, up to our calves in the water, the birds flying over, the fresh breeze blowing in our faces.

The next week was fun but stressful. I’d agreed to house sit/ cat and dog sit for my good friends Nyssa and Rich. They are two of my closest friends. After the apartment that I’d lived in for nine years burned down, I stayed with them, and their cat slept with me every night, and their dog is always excited to see me. At the same time, a group of folks I’d met on the river last year, who are part of an international organization called Ninth Wave which, among other endeavors, paddles rivers across several continents, were about to canoe the Hudson River, and I’d agreed to pick them up from the train station, let them sleep on Nyssa and Rich’s couches, and then drive them to New Baltimore where they would stage their 2018 river adventure. In exchange for the hospitality, they accompanied me to the hardware store to purchase the lumber for the walls and ceiling of the cabin, and then helped me paint the 35 2x3s and seven sheets of plywood, front and back. I had to paint them so that the lumber would not absorb water and increase in weight by 300%.

On the next Monday, June 28th (three days ago as of this writing), I picked up Sam and we drove to New Baltimore to frame out the walls of the cabin and the ceiling. We accomplished this task by 2 pm. Sam and I went to the Halfway House Tavern, the oldest business in Ravena, for lunch. Then we brought two canoes to Coeymans, lashed them together, and loaded the walls and ceilings on top. I figured it would be easier to paddle the materials 1/3 mile south to Jake’s island than to carry each piece from the top of Jake’s island around the precipice, our bodies semi-submerged.

Once we’d loaded the plywood and walls onto the canoes, there was no place left to sit. Sam and I tried to sit atop the lumber and paddle south, but the wind was blowing north, and twice we tried to paddle south only to be blown back north into the dock from which we’d departed.

I decided the only way to get the materials to the island was for me to take a rope and walk along the shore rocks. I’d done this for eleven miles along the Hudson in 2010, when the wind was so unfavorable that neither our motor nor our oars could overcome the blowback. Sam remained in the boat and used an oar, and later a 2×4, to keep the canoes from getting stuck on the piers that make the dyke along the western shore, built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1920s to prevent erosion and maintain the channel depth.

It was a treacherous expedition which took an entire hour to complete. The rope was short enough to be caught, frequently, on the protruding piers and the bolts of metal that extend from them. The rope tended to pull Sam and the canoes with the lumber into the piers. Fallen trees and other obstructions laid over the piers and required me to let go of the rope, overcome them, and meet Sam on the other side, ready to toss the rope, having paddled. The heat index triggered several alarms, so that we could not exert any effort without sweating so profusely that we required cloths to wipe our eyes. Then suddenly a storm broke over us, and it began to rain. Sam shouted jovially,

“Of course! This is our luck, man!”

And I rejoined, sarcastically,

“Hey it could be worse!”

After we did finally make it to the cove, we just checked that the barge was anchored and tied up well, which it was, and unloaded the supplies on it.

Two days ago, June 19th, I went to New Baltimore and met my dad to build the walls of the cabin. I used to not like to work with my dad, because neither of us had any experience working with power tools or framing walls. Now, I love working with my dad. He has learned about framing walls and using power tools from me, as I built boats and a cabin in the woods at Mom and Dad’s property. Especially, though, Dad read my book, and there is a lot of specific information about boatbuilding, and he is a character in it, and we have grown closer since he read the book, and I have come to anticipate his help and ideas in my boat construction.

He is also nearly seventy, and although he is a great help as a physical laborer–greater than, say, any girlfriend I’ve had, even at sixty-nine years old–I don’t want to tax him. So I like to ask Sam or Mike or my other friend Sam to help me move heavy things that require dexterity.

But Dad can certainly carry a framed-out wall, hold up 40 pounds, or suggest unorthodox ideas by which to complete a task, so I certainly like his company.

Anyhow yesterday, Dad and I went to the island. Sam and I had already deposited all of the heavy parts to assemble. Dad and I had to transport our bodies, a cordless drill, screws, some lumber, and a waterproof roof rack that you might put on the top of a car, to the cove, around the precipice that is 5-feet deep at high tide, which it was.

The wind was blowing so hard that white caps were crashing over the surface. Dad asked me about an object he descried in the river, whether it was a stick. I confirmed that it was a whole branch, almost a section of a tree, floating downriver. It took merely ten minutes for it to float a half mile past us, which suggested the river surface was blowing south quite fervently.

The most eventful part of the day was canoeing around the tip of the island into the cove in the heavy wind. Dad, I believe, has only been in a canoe one another time, and we were loaded with supplies. Dad got into the front of the canoe, and a barge passed just as I was pushing us off. A wake broke over the bow and doused him with water. Soon, though we were around the tip of the island and the wind blew us safely into the cove.

I brought the anchor up. It’d held the barge off the beach. When the anchor was aboard, I blew right onto the beach, next to Dad, who waited with the canoe and supplies. Once beached, we began to take the plywood and framed lumber that Sam and I had brought aboard the previous day off the boat. Then we laid out the plywood decking, screwed it in place at the corners, and left a half-section right in the middle unscrewed, as a hatch for access to the rowboat.

Next we screwed the walls into place.

Here’s a view out the front of the cabin. Hopefully I’ll have a similar view for about two and a half months straight this fall.

The hatch opening was 4 ‘ by 4’, and gave access to the entire rowboat for storage space.

Today, June 21st, the first day of summer, Dad and I went to the island and put the roof on. We used a cordless drill to drill pilot holes, and my power drill plugged into an inverter attached to a marine battery to drive the 3″ contractor’s screws. Adding the roof made the structure much more ridged.  My phone overheated so I had to take this picture from back atop the ridge on the island, on zoom, so it is a little blurry. That is the status of the boat as of today.

The Next Steps…

The next steps are to finish the construction of the boat, fundraise for the expedition, wire the electrical charging system, and prepare the boat for transportation overland from New Baltimore, NY to Pittsburgh, PA.

Construction

The portion of the boat seen above is currently 12-feet square. The finished boat will be 12-feet wide by 20-feet long. Thus I will be extending the length of the boat by eight more feet, the same size as the cabin in the picture. I need to finish fiberglassing and painting the rear portions of the pontoons, frame out two more deck sections like Mike, Sam, Dad and I made ten days ago, and then frame out the rear of the cabin and roof as in this picture. Then I need to purchase and cut the plywood for the sides of the cabin. The cabin will have 2.5-foot windows which will fold down around the entire length of the cabin, beneath which will be screen to help protect us from mosquitos. I will be adding a door to the front and a sort of hinged deck on either side which will extend over two canoes. The rear portion of the deck will interface with the speedboat I bought in February, as a barge interfaces with a tugboat, so I will have to come up with some sort of bumper system that also secures the speedboat in place when driving the barge. Interior work on the cabin and the final paint job will not be completed until we have launched in the Allegheny River above Pittsburgh.

Fundraising 

I am using Kickstarter, a fundraising website, to try to raise $7,000 for the trip. Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing fundraising site, meaning that people offer to donate to a project but are not charged for their donation unless the total amount of the fundraising goal is pledged. There are incentives built into the donation levels. For example, donating $25 entitles a contributor to a copy of my book, Siren Song , $60 gives a contributor a two-volume copy of  Coming of Age on the Hudson,  and $500 buys a contributor two days and one night on board the boat as we make our expedition. I have 30 days to raise the $7,000 or I lose any lesser amount pledged. The Kickstarter math is complex, though. If 140 people pledge $50 and get a copy of my book, and it costs me $10 to print a copy and $5 to mail it, and Kickstarter takes it’s 10% fees and charges, I net $4,200. If 700 people donate $10 and receive no books, I net $6,300. It makes it a little hard to budget the total amount of money I will have available until the end of the Kickstarter period. I’m also saving for the trip from my regular employment, but much of that money is currently going to purchase construction materials. Along the way, I am hoping to raise awareness of my book on Amazon.com and sell enough copies to supplement the amount I will start out with. The more books I can sell or money I can raise, the more interesting of a trip I will have, because I will be able to visit more places and see and blog about more things. Since the purpose of the book I’m writing on this project is to compare the political and cultural life of the small towns along the Ohio and Mississippi, and abstract those conditions or policies that are leading some communities to thrive, my fundraising is directly related to the quality of the book. The more I can raise, the longer I can stay on the river, the more places I can dock, the more tributaries I can travel up, the more cultural facilities and local businesses I can visit and patronize.

Also, as of today, I am quitting smoking in order to save money for the trip (as well as for it’s health benefits)!

Electrical System

Having enough electricity on this trip is key. My partner on the trip, Sam, and I will be bringing our laptops, cell phones, and AV equipment in order to blog and podcast along the way. I need to use my phone for the river charts app which requires running my location services. The navigation and anchor lights and interior lights need to run. And I am using two electric trolling motors, mounted on the two sides of the boat, one of which is remote controlled, to steer when the river presents conditions that do not require the outboard motor. To power all of this equipment, I am installing two 1Kw windmill generators, which I already own, but which I need an expert to help me wire to the bank of four deep-cycle batteries which will store our power. We will also bring a generator and, if the budget permits their purchase, solar panels. All of this needs to be wired to a sacrificial fuse which prevents overloading in high gusts of wind and a charge controller, at a minimum.

Transportation

As of right now, the plan is to take the boat apart on August 1st and store it on land at my parent’s house until the last week of August, and then to rent a Uhaul to transport all the pieces, as well as the speedboat, out to PA. I would much prefer to find a professional driver with a flatbed to bring everything out. I have started to spread the word that I am looking for that service, but if anyone has any advice, please contact me at [email protected] .

I will be updating this site at least once a week as the construction progresses.

Can You Take A Boat From Pittsburgh To New Orleans?

It’s hard to imagine two places more different than Pittsburgh and New Orleans. But are these two cities connected? Can you take a boat from Pittsburgh to New Orleans?

You can take a boat from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. There are several commercial cruise operators who operate on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. You can even sail from Pittsburgh to New Orleans on your own boat, as long as you’re willing and able to make the 1,981-mile trip.

So what route would you take to go from Pittsburgh to New Orleans? Do you need a big boat? How big of a boat could you bring? Do you need licenses or permits to pass through different states? Read on to learn more about making this unique voyage.

Voyaging from Steel City to the Big Easy

Pittsburgh and New Orleans seem like they’re a world apart. Pittsburgh is an industrial city known for grit, determination, and  steel . New Orleans is known for Jazz, Cajun food, Mardi Gras, and a colorful way of life.  Both Pittsburgh and New Orleans were born on the water and are connected by the Ohio River and Mississippi River.

The  Ohio River  begins in Pittsburgh and flows roughly southwest for 981 miles to Cairo, Illinois, where it connects to the lower Mississippi River, which then flows for another 1,000 miles or so to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico.  So as long as you’re able to endure a long voyage, you can absolutely launch a boat in Pittsburgh and make your way to New Orleans.

Commercial River Cruises

One of the most popular ways to cruise from Pittsburgh to New Orleans is via riverboat.  While the heyday of the riverboat has gone, a new market has opened up for luxury riverboat cruises. The  MS Louisiane , for example,  offers passengers a luxurious 14-day river cruise between Pittsburgh and New Orleans. 

However, apart from the  Louisiane,  very few operators directly connect Pittsburgh and New Orleans. It is conceivably possible to find passage to a city like Memphis and connect to New Orleans from there, but the logistics may get a little dicey. With all that in mind, it might be easier just to bring your own boat!

Bring Your Own Boat

While the Ohio and Mississippi are both formidable waterways, it is entirely possible to successfully navigate these rivers in something as small as a  canoe  or  kayak . In addition, mariners with access to cabin cruisers, sailboats, or even pontoon boats could make the journey relatively easy.

If you do decide to bring your own vessel,  be aware that both the Ohio and Mississippi rivers are used by large commercial vessels.  Barges are an especially pernicious threat: while they may look slow and small, they are actually quite huge and can throw up  a massive wake . So be prepared to deal with the presence of large vessels.

Another thing to plan for as you transit the river is the  lock system . There are  19 locks  between Pittsburgh and Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio River meets the Mississippi. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the process for  passing through the locks  ahead of time.  

The locks along the Ohio River are 110 feet wide and 600 feet long.  Therefore, unless your vessel is longer than 600 feet or wider than 110 feet, it will fit through the locks and can sail the river. This includes everything from canoes to powerboats, pontoon boats, sailboats, tugs, and yachts. Once you join the Mississippi River, there are no more locks.

State Boating Laws

While the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers are both federally controlled waterways, there is a legal concept called  concurrent jurisdiction  which means that some portions of federally regulated waterways are under the legal jurisdiction of states, counties, or cities.

One complication of navigating from Pittsburgh to New Orleans is that every state along the route has its own requirements for whether or not boaters can operate in their waters.

In general, you will need a  boating safety certificate  from a reputable operator, a state ID card, and any ownership or insurance documents you may need for your vessel. In addition, you’ll want to be sure you are very familiar with your vessel and experienced in both navigation and basic seamanship before attempting a long river voyage.

For the “rules of the road,” mariners should follow the  U.S. Coast Guard’s guidelines .

Keystone Answers Fun Fact:  The biggest vessel ever to sail the Mississippi River is the American Queen, a 213-stateroom, 420-foot-long paddle boat that cruises the lower Mississippi.

Pittsburgh to New Orleans: The River Route

The voyage from Pittsburgh to New Orleans takes you through an underappreciated but beautiful part of the United States. From Pittsburgh, the Ohio River bears northwest to Ohio, then turns south and defines the border between Ohio and West Virginia.

One of the best hidden gems along the Ohio River can be found in  Marietta, Ohio . One of the nice things about Marietta is that it’s very walkable, so once you’re docked, you can easily explore downtown on foot.

Downtown Marietta is very friendly and is lined with plenty of fun local shops and restaurants. History buffs will love the town’s ancient ambiance and bounty of historical sites. You can even see an ancient Indian mound at the Mound Cemetery.

After Marietta, the next major city along the Ohio River is Cincinnati. After you dock at the  marina , you could head into town to check out some of  Ohio’s best dining . Cincinnati is also home to a fabulous  art museum , an  Underground Railroad museum , and of course, a  zoo .

If you prefer to be outdoors, there are a ton of wonderful parks in the city, including the beautiful 45-acre Smale Riverfront Park and the  Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum .

The next major city along the Ohio River is  Louisville, Kentucky . Louisville is home to about 783,000 people and has plenty of fun things to do. Bourbon enthusiasts will enjoy taking a  Bourbon Tour  or visiting one of the famous local distilleries. And who could forget about famous landmarks like  Churchill Downs  or the  Louisville Slugger factory ?

After Louisville, the river winds along the southern borders of Indiana and Illinois. One notable location is  Cave-In-Rock , a tiny historical town in southern Illinois. Cave-In-Rock is home to a  beautiful state park  and is where the notorious  river pirate  Samuel Mason based his fleet of ne’er-do-wells. Don’t worry, though; there are no (known) pirates operating on the river today!

Soon enough,  the Ohio River merges with the mighty Mississippi River at the city of Cairo, Illinois.  From Cairo, the Mississippi rushes south, defining the borders of Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas.

The first stop on the Mississippi River is  Memphis , Tennessee. After sailing the Ohio River and making your way along the oxbows and twists of the Mississippi, you’ll surely have a sailor’s appetite.

Memphis is home to some of the  best barbecue in the world , often featuring complex and delectable dry rubs crafted over generations by local families. After you address your appetite, take a few hours (or even a few days) to  explore this remarkable city .

From Memphis, the Mississippi River continues south. The next notable stop on your river journey will be  Natchez, Mississippi . While it is a small town,  Natchez is known for its beautiful architecture and resplendent southern scenery.  It’s worth stopping in to check out the  art galleries  or get some real-life  southern soul food .

The penultimate stop on the route from Pittsburgh to New Orleans is the city of  Baton Rouge , the capital of Louisiana. Baton Rouge has a unique local culture that blends the Cajun and Creole traditions with diehard loyalty to the  local colleges and their football teams . And as with any other exciting city, travelers will want to explore some of the  excellent restaurants  in the area.

After Baton Rouge, the Mississippi becomes broader and deeper and can accommodate large cargo vessels. From here on, mariners should be confident dealing with the wake from big ships. It is a short trip down the Mississippi to one of America’s best cities –  New Orleans , Louisiana.

New Orleans is one of America’s most eccentric cities, and it is known for its fantastic music scene, delicious Creole food, and festivals – especially Mardi Gras! We could probably write an entire book on what to do in New Orleans , but we’d bet that thirsty mariners would like to enjoy a  fine cocktail  or some  world-class food  before heading out and exploring some of the cultural and entertainment options in the city.

Big Steel to the Big Easy

Boating from Pittsburgh to New Orleans is quite an adventure.  Whether you save your pennies and take a luxurious river cruise or pack your camping gear and paddle downriver, you’re sure to see some amazing sights and learn a lot about middle America along the way. So pack some pierogies and get ready to celebrate with some Vieux Carre cocktails once you get to New Orleans – you’ll have earned it!

Is Pittsburgh Worth Visiting?

Is knoebels amusement park free.

Welcome to Keystone Answers. We're Cindy and Don, and we were both born and raised in Pennsylvania. As we started to spend more time traveling in our home state and discovering new things, we decided to share what we learned on this website. Incredibly, after all these years of living in the same state, you can still learn something new! Keystone Answers is owned and operated by Rees Enterprises LLC. Please read our  privacy policy  and  terms and conditions  for more information. Learn more about Keystone Answers and us  here .

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Dinner Jazz Cruises

Cruise with dinner USD $102.50

Sightseeing option USD $55.00

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Cruise with lunch USD $60.00

Sightseeing option USD $42.00

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Evening jazz cruise, new orleans tours, plantation tours, swamp tours, special events & packages, mardi gras party package, free cruise tickets for teachers, spring fling party package, mother's day cruise, summer sips, easter bunny brunch cruise, new orleans steamboat company.

The New Orleans Steamboat Company is no newcomer to the Mississippi River or American's steamboat heritage.  Our parent company has been operating steamboats longer than any company in the world.  In fact, we've been part of the history of steam transport since 1817, just five years after the first steamboat docked in New Orleans. We're now in our fourth decade of life on the Mississippi.  We've given literally millions of people the experience of one of our country's oldest and richest traditions.

Come aboard and enjoy New Orleans hospitality ...Steamboat Style!

The newest addition to the New Orleans Riverfront & sister vessel of the Steamboat NATCHEZ

SAIL WITH SANTA ON THE STEAMBOAT NATCHEZ

SAIL WITH SANTA ON THE STEAMBOAT NATCHEZ: Celebrate the holiday season, and the return of the Steamboat NATCHEZ, at our Sailing with Santa Event! On Saturday, November 25th, our annual Sailing with Santa Cruise will be taking place on the newly renovated Steamboat NATCHEZ. The c…

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What is the dress code? How far in advance should I make reservations? Can we bring pets on board the boat? Is there any entertainment on your cruises? Where can we park?...

America’s Most Scenic Small-Ship and River Cruises

Columbia and snake rivers.

T hese nine-day American river cruises on the American Queen Steamboat Company's American Empress sail from Vancouver, Washinton to Portland, Oregon and show you a glimpse at some of the most gorgeous scenery in the Pacific Northwest. From the paddle wheeler, you'll get to see the dramatic waterfalls at the Columbia River Gorge, the pioneer town The Dalles, and sea lions and filming sites from the hit 1980s film, The Goonies in Astoria.

Rivers of Wine Theme Cruise on the Columbia and Snake Rivers

These seven-night American river cruises on the UnCruise Adventure's S.S. Legacy sail round trip out of Portland, Oregon cruising a similar route to American Empress but focusing on wine. A sommelier and guest wine expert sail with passengers for the week, serving as an onboard resource and hosting tastings. There are also wine tastings, vineyard tours, and wine cave tours in Columbia Gorge, Walla Walla, Red Mountain, Columbia Valley, and the Willamette Valley and guests get to taste old-vine varietals and wines from eco-cultivated vineyards. River cruises are also popular across the pond.

Adventure Theme Cruise on the Olympic Peninsula

Sailing round-trip out of Seattle through Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands on an elegant little yacht, this seven-night cruise on UnCruise Adventure's Safari Quest includes kayaking, paddle boarding, and plenty of hikes. There are also opportunities to spot bald eagles, sea lions, and whales and to enjoy local seafood, including oysters and clams.

Upper Mississippi American Heartland Theme Cruise

This river cruise from Chicago to St. Louis is on American Queen Steamboat Company's newest ship, the American Duchess , a paddle wheeler as majestic as her older sisters, with the same iconic red paddlewheel. You'll see the towering skyscrapers of Chicago and get the perfect photo op of St. Louis's famed arch. The focus of this cruise is American history, and you can see towns that were settled as trading posts by French explorers, visit the site of the first Lincoln-Douglas debate in Ottowa, Illinois, and check out places from Mark Twain's writings in his hometown of Hannibal, Missouri. Want to learn even more of America's backstory? Start with these 16 best cities for American history buffs .

Ohio River Cruise

These 11-day cruise tours on American Cruise Line's Queen of the Mississippi travel from St. Louis to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania visiting Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati (among other towns) along the way. You'll get a behind-the-scenes tour of Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, and tour the Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. In Cape Girardeau, you'll see everything from Trail of Tears sites to Civil War battlefields. Best of all, expect plenty of bluegrass music and mint juleps along the way.

Music Cruise on the Cumberland River

These seven-night American river cruises from Nashville to St. Louis also on American Cruise Line's Queen of the Mississippi will take you to the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry, and the Johnny Cash Museum and then heads on to St. Louis for a celebration of blues music.

Mississippi River Bourbon Theme Cruise

Cruise up the Mississippi River from Memphis to Louisville on the American Queen Steamboat Company's American Queen, with private tastings and cooking demos along the way, as well as lectures by historians. This special sailing, offered annually in July, also includes the opportunity to sample rare and vintage bourbons as well.

Lake Michigan

On this eight-day cruise roundtrip out of Chicago on Blount Small Ship Adventures's Grande Mariner , you'll visit Mackinac Island, Michigan, home to historic homes and plenty of rocking chairs as well as Sturgeon Bay in Wisconsin's Door County, where you'll see lighthouses and plenty of yachts.

Lower Mississippi from New Orleans to New Orleans

See—and eat—the highlights of New Orleans—from beignets to po' boys—before setting sail on American Cruise Line's America Song . You'll head to Natchez and Vicksburg in Missouri for Civil War sites and St. Francisville and Houmas House, Louisiana for historic plantations with a stop in the middle in Baton Rouge to see the Louisiana State Museum and the capital buildings. Occasionally, the line also offers a food-themed cruise out of New Orleans, too.

Maine Coastal Cruises

Maine Windjammer Association's Lewis R. French is a dramatic 21-passenger schooner that offers two- to six-night cruises in the summer and through the month of September out of the town of Camden, Maine. The schooner, which dates back to 1871 and is a National Historic Landmark, has no engine, and powers through Penobscot Bay just with the wind in its sails. You can help out with the sails, and watch for porpoises and eagles.

Newport, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard Cruise

This sailing yacht, the Arabella , may winter in the Caribbean, but it summers in the northeast, home of lobster rolls, lighthouses, and clambakes. The five-night sailings in July, August, and September let you travel to the area's loveliest beaches under billowing white sails.

Chesapeake Bay Cruise

This seven-night cruise on American Cruise Line's Independence sails round-trip out of Baltimore to Oxford, St. Michael's, and Annapolis, Maryland as well as Yorktown and Williamsburg, Virginia. You'll visit coastal fishing villages and eat plenty of hard-shell blue crabs, and get to visit Baltimore's famed aquarium.

Hudson River Valley Fall Foliage Theme Cruise

This eight-day American river cruise on American Cruise Line's American Constitution sails round-trip out of New York City before taking you to Hyde Park, the Catskills, and West Point as well as Sleepy Hollow, all in upstate New York. But in addition to the history in the region, the highlight of the cruise is easily the changing colors of the autumnal leaves.

Savannah to Baltimore

Cruise one of our favorite 12-day American river cruises in the Southeast on Blount Small Ship Adventures's Grand Mariner and you'll spend your days exploring Beaufort by horse-drawn carriage and wander the cobblestone streets of Charleston, South Carolina as the port town of Annapolis. Read on to discover the best cruise to take every month of the year .

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