Tall Stacks Day 1

Day 1 account

What a wonderful account of your first day, Judy. Some of the Gateway City contingent will be arriving Thursday evening, taking in an evening dinner cruise on the Belle of Louisville. I understand that a lot of steamboaters will be aboard the Natchez when it soaks it's competition on Friday.

How interesting that Franz/Carmen have never been to the original Hofbrauhaus, considering that they are from that area. I hope they enjoyed the Cincinnati one. I just visited the Las Vegas location last week. It was great fun.

Great report, Judy! Many thanks to you and to Keith for providing these first glimpses of those special steamboat moments for those of us stuck at home and at work during the festivities. Although I know your work schedule on the NATCHEZ will be exhausting this week, any little vignettes or observations you can share with your friends not fortunate enough to be there is always appreciated. The emotional high of being back aboard the NATCHEZ, doing what you like best to help out that beautiful lady, will more than compensate for your lack of sleep. You can always crash when you get back home! In the meantime, have a great week, and know that there are scores of river friends who are there with you in spirit (including many special ones who have made their final crossing, as well). Thanks again for your efforts to enable the rest of us to have some small share in this celebration of steamboating.

Day 2 TS

Just a brief note before heading to work...most of the boats had one cruise last night, a chartered dinner cruise. Krogers chartered the NATCHEZ. With free food and drink available, most pax weren't interested in spending money in the Gift Shop, so Dan Back and I were able to get out and snap some pix while underway. What a beautiful sunset! The BELLE came in early for a medical emergency, and we haven't seen the MAGNOLIA BELLE yet. Hopefully she's here this morning. The evening ended with fireworks, but I headed back here to rest. Most of our day was spent stuffing the shop with as much merchandise as possible, freeing up the storage space on the boat for other stuff. We did take a break and ate over at Mike Finks, and then toured the BELLE and MAJESTIC. We had quite a few crew members from other boats on the NATCHEZ too. Tuesday was probably the best day for us to visit, and it was great comraderie. My NATCHEZ colleagues were impressed by the gleaming BOL, and I certainly felt my age when I told them it was about 55 years ago when I took my first steamboat ride on her as the AVALON.... no rest for the wicked, got to go pick up our boss Ken LaPorte. We're skipping the breakfast cruise to hit WalMart for supplies. Rain is headed here tonight so we need plastic for our outdoor shop. Weather for the rest of the week is to be beautiful and 60-70s. If you ride the NATCHEZ, hot new item is a wonderful windbreaker - and we've still got 15,200 pins left! More later....

The MAGNOLIA BELLE seemed to moving on a slow bell when she came by our landing around 9:30 PM Sunday evening. Not sure if she has mechanical issues or not, but she locked thru Markland later that evening. The captain is formerly from Florence, Indiana, so perhaps they had an extended lay-over at Turtle Creek Marina(?)

Day 3 Tall Stacks

The MAGNOLIA BELLE is tied up upriver from Cincy on the Kentucky side, obviously not a part of TS. In fact, Franz and Carmen were to ride her tonight but they got switched to the NATCHEZ afternoon harbor trip. What an official first day! Ken and I made the WalMart run and got back in time to watch the NATCHEZ and BELLE land...of all days, I left my camera in the motel. I zipped over to the BELLE to briefly greet Hotfingers Prater and Lil Smith. They were driven along the wharf by golf cart, probably the slowest Hotfingers has moved all week. They'll be on the NATCHEZ Thursday. Tom Schiffer and Sharon Cunningham rode an early cruise, and the afternoon harbor trip carried in addition to our webmeisters, Ann Zeiger, Barb Hameister, Noftzgers, Hindmans. True steamboaters, they assisted in picking up the dishes and pieces thereof which went crashing to the deck when a serving table collapsed near them. Amazingly only about 10 plates broke. Capt. Sister Joy Manthey breezed onto the boat between trips. She's port captain operations, assisting the boats in and out of their docks. The dinner cruise had Chief Chris Wirtjes, Ann and Barb, and Capt. Pete and Evie O'Connell ex-BELLE aboard. Capt. Pete favored us with his wonderful handmade monkeyfist keychains, and fortunately there were a few cookie crumbs left for him to sample. Severe storms were forecast for this evening, but we lucked out and missed them. Actually Evie saved us by purchasing 3 rain ponchos before the cruise started. She knew that would keep the rain away, and it did! I'm not sure what the total number of crew is on the NATCHEZ, but the food and beverage is largely staffed by casual labor from the Cincy area, while regular crew (and a couple of strays like Dan and I) man the rest of the boat. Looking at some of the temps hauling stuff up the stairs to the Texas bar/serving area, I suspect a few won't return tomorrow. Working on a boat is NOT the same as on land. I mentioned the goose bumps the other night when the BELLE glided by and gave us a whistle salute... well, today it was tears of joy: I looked out the Gift Shop door before our morning harbor cruise began, and it was nothing but a sea of humanity on deck, shoulder to shoulder - people everywhere. I called my coworkers over to look, and their eyes lit up too - the NATCHEZ had truly come back to life! We had 1164 passengers on that cruise(1100 it seemed were schoolkids, maybe really only 1000 of them). What a joyous moment to see that mass of people out there on deck. We saw many of the older kids in the shop, as one bought a pair of sunglasses and soon all the classmates came in for the same. We probably sold 75 pair that trip, and none the rest of the day! For the day we carried 2616 pax - and Debbie appropriately played each cruise, I Ain't Down Yet! Yes siree, the NATCHEZ never left, but she is really really 'back'. Thanks Cincy and environs and all you steamboaters for your support! ....we've got just under 15,000 pewter hat pins left - reserve yours before they run out!!!! 8 hours before the next 'showtime', so time for some zzzzzzzzzzz....

No the Magnolia Belle is not part of Tall Stacks. It was disallowed because of an insurance problem. Supposedly, the boat is being replaced by the Blennerhassett, operating at the same dock as the Magnolia Belle. But, if Franz was moved to the Natchez, it sounds like maybe there was a choice. Don't know.

Glad to hear that things are going well on the Natchez. Save a pin for me. I'll be aboard on Friday.

Yes, the BLENNERHASSETT is there in its place. Franz and Carmen were reassigned to the SPIRIT OF JEFFERSON, but they refused that and asked for the NATCHEZ instead, which they received. So if anyone is displaced from a cruise, don't accept the TS reassignment if you don't want it. Negotiate. The rains came during the night and now we're supposed to have clear skies the rest of the fest. The temp has dropped from 85 yesterday to 58 now. Temps are supposed to be low 60s today and tomorrow and 70s for the weekend. Looks great....time to go over for our longest day. We start with a harbor cruise at 9AM and our moonlight gets back at midnight. We broke down the temporary outside shop last night due to the weather forecast so now we'll put it back up before the first cruise.... Friday afternoon the race includes the DQ, BELLE OF LOUISVILLE, and the NATCHEZ, even though the media stuff omits the NATCHEZ....

I'm sure Franz and Carmen are having a ball, despite the fact that Leonie began school several weeks ago and had to remain in Munich under the watchful care of her grandparents. Carmen told me Sunday that she heard Leonie humming a song last week. And what WAS that song??? "Waiting for the Robt. E. Lee"!!! I can't imagine why!!!!

Days 3 and 4 TS

Two days rolled into one! I'm writing this at 1:45AM Friday after just getting in from the boat. Our last cruise was scheduled to end at midnight, but we landed at 1:10AM due to the rising water. Those of you familiar with the Ohio know how quickly it rises and falls- it started up Thursday afternoon and we juggled landing areas starting around 5PM. When we returned from the dinner trip, the BELLE had to pull out to let us in and several of her deckhands got soaked and cooled off diving for the the mooring rings which had gone under during our cruise. When we came in for the midnight landing, we had to wait for boats to be manuevered so we could squeeze in. Capt. Joy Manthey was working the radios on this as port captain. With the help of a tow on our stern we got in at 1:10AM. I zipped off the boat to my car, as there was a sign that the parking garage towed after 1AM, and anyone with NOLA experience takes that seriously. The car was there and I headed back for the levee where I picked up the Pats and 3 coworkers and got them home. It was snug but we made it. Word is that the races are off due to the high water, and quite frankly I don't know what the situation will be in 6 hours when I go back for our first cruise. Our stacks are 63 feet high, but more important is the lack of landing area without wading to the boats. I feel sorry for the deck officers and crews tonight - there won't be much sleep as they'll be babysitting the lines and maybe moving boats. At this time, there appears to be no room for the DQ and MQ at the wharf....the day started 18 hours ago with a quick run to a 24 hour Walgreens to pick up paper bags for gift shop purchases. The first trip was quite light and the lunch appeared to be so too. They suggested that Dan and I take off and enjoy the festival. I walked up the levee and bought a TS pin, heard Debbie start the calliope, and went back to the boat. Enough festival for me. When I got up to the Gift Shop, Dan was already back too. We came here to be on the NATCHEZ and help, not to tour the riverfront. The lunch cruise was delightful, with Hotfingers(Miss Helen) and Lil aboard. I did take time off to visit with them at their breezy table. They helped the New Orleans Steamboat economy with their large gift shop purchase. As they were preparing to leave, in walked Steve and Barb Huffman. So that soiree continued until the next trip was ready to board. The dinner trip was billed as a Mardi Gras dinner by TS. Apparently beads and masks were promised to the pax. This was something we didn't know about, and we had no beads for those who requested them. There have been quite a few snafus regarding things pax have been told vs. what reality is. I guess that's a liability of a large event run not by yourself but by an outside group. As I was catching a late night supper, Capt. Wilson came and told me some friends from the SPIRIT OF PEORIA were up in the Gift Shop spending money - it was Lee and Kathy Havlik of JBS fame. I was able to visit with them briefly but unfortunately boarding time for the moonlight came too soon for them to get a tour of the boat. Hopefully they'll be able to come back this weekend. They too are having a ball working on the SPIRIT. The moonlight cruise found Pat Traynor, Pat Carr, and Frank Prudent aboard. It was another glorious day of steamboating, and a long one. I hope my navigation/deck crew friends can catch some sleep tonight, they should be exhausted. It was like being on a plane which has landed and is waiting on the tarmac for a gate. And there were at least two boats yet behind us waiting to land after 1 AM!!!!!!!

LIVE FROM THE LEVEE REPORT: Judy just called my office from onboard the Str. Natchez to say that, due to the high water conditions, ALL boats are dockside for the time being and the steamboat race scheduled for today has been cancelled. A meeting for all captains has been scheduled for noon, at which time decisions will be made regarding future cruises, etc. Judy says the boats are wedged into the landing like sardines and the DQ and MQ are upriver at other landings because there is NO room at the Cincinnati wharf for them.

If your cruise has been cancelled (or even if it hasn't) remember that the Howard Museum is just a little over an hours drive from Cincinnati in Jeffersonville, In and we are open and would be happy to see you. It is a beautiful drive from Cincinnati and the trees are really beginning to turn this week.

FULL STEAM AHEAD! All cruises at Tall Stacks are back on schedule as of 1:40 PM., with the approval and cooperation of the Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, River Operations and vessel captains. Hooray!!!!!!!!

Day 4 Tall Stacks

Today was the day I finally walked the bridge to TS, as planned. It was a beautiful sunny morning and photographers were aplenty on the bridge. Surprise! Franz was one of them. It was only a 15 minute walk from the Travelodge in Newport to the NATCHEZ, sure beat fighting the auto traffic. As reported, the morning trips were cancelled due to the rising water. Our first 'cruise' was harbor, with no entertainment or food, so the passengers took the option to not board and get a refund. We were tied up with the BELLE OF CINCINNATI and it brought back memories of that pix of the GORDON and GOLDEN EAGLE meeting midriver. I chatted with some of the BoC passengers and then went into the gift shop for the day. First surprise was Darlene Judd, who was enroute to her role as BELLE greeter. She expressed great relief that Capt. Bill was NOT the Port Chief this year. Soon afterward, a dashing Captain in full regalia appeared, none other than Capt. Bill. Even though he wasn't port chief, he had been busy with insurance issues and now as BoC Captain. The lunch 'cruise' was also dockside, but over 400 pax chose to come aboard and eat and enjoy the Dukes of Dixieland performance. They also chose to spend time and money in the Gift Shop. There seemed to be no unhappy campers in this group. Throughout the week, people have been so gracious to us and have inquired about New Orleans' status, and many express joy at being able to just be on board the NATCHEZ. Shortly after the 'cruise' ended, it was spread that the 'race' cruise would go out. And go out we did! As we were boarding and I was ringing up a sale, I heard THAT whistle in the distance. Goosebumps. The DQ appeared heading downriver. I hadn't seen her all year, due to the lack of an UMR cruise in'06. A pause in the transaction to snap a pix of the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE and the NATCHEZ at their landing, with the DQ gliding down between them in the background. Later Franz would show me a digital shot he took with the same composition! A few minutes after the DQ passed, the MQ did also. We all went downriver and did an impromptu parade of boats. BeBe Stone Wilver reported later that she and her husband had a terrific view from their home high on the hill, and that it was better than a race. We were ringing up $$$ the whole trip so I didn't see much of the parading. On board the NATCHEZ were Darin Schuld, Jane Greene, Franz and Carmen and 906 others. Dan took a basket of our pins around the top deck and came back with $60(still about 14,000+ left) A banner trip. There was absolutely no turnaround time before the Happy Hour cruise, which attracted a different crowd with its beer sampling feature. Before the dinner cruise, John and Carol Mullen appeared on the end of the gangplank for a brief visit. The dinner cruise was chartered and the two highlights therein were: a young 7th grade boy who spent about an hour with us asking questions about Katrina and it's effect on the crew. Suzi showed him aerial shots from the Katrina book and related her experiences. He bought the $10 book and was so grateful for the information. It is so gratifying to see how much people care about New Orleans and her people; and talking with the paramedic assigned to the cruise - Cappy Loudon's son! I should have recognized him, he's a spitting 'cussing' image of his dad! We actually arrived back on time, 11:15PM and I managed to catch the shuttle bus rather than hike across the cool bridge. Tomorrow and its soldout 5 cruises starts in 7 hours. Time for zzzzzz.

Day 5

The day (Saturday) started with a beautiful walk across the Southport Bridge at 7:15AM. The full moon was still up and behind the boats, which had the bridge lined with photographers. Aboard the NATCHEZ there was much anticipation of a banner day, and it came true. All 5 cruises were sold out and we carried 3072 passengers. Gordon Stevens is going to research it, but that is quite possibly a record for one day (as I type, I just heard the BELLE's whistle. She must be departing on an early breakfast cruise.) We know we set a record for number of meals served, as most of you know the NATCHEZ is a sightseeing boat, not a dinner vessel. We've had to rent extra tables, dishes, etc. for all these meal trips and are using lots of temp help in the food and beverage department. We were busy all day in the gift shop and are emptying boxes of stored items (still have plenty of pins though). I did get up to the pilothouse for about 20 minutes on one cruise - they all blend in after a while - and the GENERAL JACKSON was approaching us. From the distance I thought the steamer CAPITOL was heading our way! It was disappointing on Tuesday when the crews had a chance to visit the other boats that the GJ wouldn't let us aboard. All the others have been so friendly, and of course we are in special communion with our neighbor and sister steamer the BELLE... to be continued, as its time to take the hike over the beautiful Ohio one more time. First showtime today is 9AM and we end at 9 PM, a short day!

The webcam caught this interesting view of the BELLE of CINCINNATI rafted off of the NATCHEZ, with passengers boarding at around 8:30 AM this morning.

Back home again!

Hi all,

We just arrived at noon (6 am Tall Stacks time) back home at my parents place to "relieve" them of Leonie (damages are still counted up :-)).

We met the Pats and Ernst (out of Vienna, currently living in Tennessee) for breakfast Saturday morning. After saying good bye we went up to the bridge with Ernst to show im some nice video spots. By the way he´s on the Natchez for today´s parade. He´s going on his first DQ cruise on Monday (with some of the .orgers like the Mullens).

We watched the Belle leaving (and coming back) and the Natchez returning to the landing and I guess I took another 50 or so photos.

We headed over to the Newport Aquarium to get a river otter in the gift shop for Leonie.

We opted to go out early to the airport for our 4:20 pm flight and arrived at about 1 pm. It turned out that Terminal 1 is only used by US Airways operating 3 flights that Saturday. We walked over to Terminal 2 and found the bell of the second ISLAND QUEEN together with two plastic models of the NATCHEZ and the ROBT. E. LEE. What a nice surprise! Unfortunately our plane was delayed for one hour but we had no problems to catch our flight to Munich!

I wanted to say a big thank you to all of you who made this trip a special one! A special thanks goes of course to Kevin Mullen and the whole Belle crew! Another big thank you to Jo Ann (especially for the Schoen B&B), Katie, Judy, Frank and Barb who saved us a lot of money on cabs :-). I bet Frank must think we´re crazy buying 5 bags of Pecans at Krogers and having our own Kroger card (we´re still working on Sam´s Club). Frank and Chuck´s Tall Stacks Party Friday night was a great end for our trip and it was a great pleasure to meet so many of you river rats :-). I have to apologize for missing some of you (like the Mullens, the Steinikes, Steve and Barbara and lots more). We simply ran out of time!

We try to catch a glimpse of the parade on the webcams today (for us it´s tonight) thinking of all of you who are still on the boats!

Carmen

TS on webcam

Carmen, it was great to see you and Franz again. I didn't see as many people as you, but I had a great time. I am now back home, as well.

In terms of watching Tall Stacks events on webcams, I highly recommend the Cincy Marina webcam (found in the steamboats.org webcam directory). It is a live webcam, that updates every three seconds or so. In the brief time I was watching, I saw a few boats go by, including the Natchez, which is in the attachment. I'm sure the Parade of Tall Stacks will look great on this webcam

thank you all for sharing. I have truely enjoyed watching Tall Stacks through your eyes, since i could not attend.
Thanks so much

Judy Post;1575 wrote: thank you all for sharing. I have truely enjoyed watching Tall Stacks through your eyes, since i could not attend.
Thanks so much

I agree...

I could not attend TS either...but Judy Patsch's excellent posts sure made it seem like I was there indeed!

Days 6 and 7 Tall Stacks

Thanks for your thanks - the only thing I did beside work and sleep was post each night. It helped me summarize things for myself too. These last two days are being reported belatedly from my homeport at mile 480 UMR....If we broke the record on Saturday for number of passengers carried in one day, it was shortlived! We outdid it on Sunday with only 4 trips. We carried 3123 pax on the 4 cruises because two were unlimited capacity, the harbor and the parade trips. Our meal trips were limited to 500 and we had more of those during the 5 trip day Saturday. Sunday started out bittersweet because we had to say farewell to Bubba Dow, who had to fly home to resume his in-class schooling. He had taken 2 weeks off to work on the NATCHEZ and was enrolled in Steamboating 102. He had worked on her previously and the crew had nothing but great things to say about him. They were absolutely correct! What a fine young man, so attentive to his duties and so curious to learn every aspect of steamboating. He was working as watchman/deckhand this go around, but I understand he's been grimy in the Engine Room in previous sessions. I wonder how mundane his classes seemed Monday. He's a senior in high school and is planning to attend Maine Maritime Academy next year. He'll be a worthy successor to his grandfather Wilbur and his father William as owner of New Orleans Steamboat, should that come to pass. The highlight of the cruises Sunday was the Parade Lap - we all went upstream and paraded down single file through the harbor. I know in past years that Doc narrated that for a local radio station, but I don't know if that was done this year in his absence. The parade leader was none other than the Cincinnati-homeported DELTA QUEEN. She was followed by the venerable BELLE of LOUISVILLE and the NATCHEZ was third. I would have thought the MQ would have been right behind us to keep all the steamboats together, but she brought up the rear of the procession. An hour or so of whistles blowing, calliopes playing, and passengers waving, and gift shop registers ringing! The NATCHEZ' day ended at 9PM, and our gift shop crew, the 'A team' as Dan called us: Ken, Suzi, Shannon, Dan and I, lifted a toast to the occasion. I believe Shannon joined the rest of the crew at their hotel for further toasting, but we old folks dispersed to our respective beds. As I was leaving the boat, the BELLE was boarding for a moonlight cruise. The thought entered my mind to hop on, but common sense prevailed for once. I needed some serious sleep for my Monday drive home. Monday - I was going to entitle this entry 'After the Ball Is Over', but I see Keith beat me to the punch. But that's what I really was humming as Suzi and I came back to the NATCHEZ at 8AM to break down the temporary outside gift shop. It was a dark and gloomy day - actually just foggy and it burned off by 9:30. The SPIRIT OF JEFFERSON was delayed in her departure for a run to Rabbit Hash. I did not see the mayor on board so I presume he was there to greet them on their arrival home. As soon as she left, the BELLE did also, with a former BELLE deckhand, our Capt. Steve, letting her last line go. What a wonderful situation to be docked next to her all week. Our crews went back and forth probably more than any others. I was able to get shots of her arrival and of her departure, something finally that Franz didn't get in his thousands! I'll email them to him soon. On the levee were garbage bags(so efficiently picked up many times a day by a little garbage scow which nestled up to us between trips), serving dishes, tables, etc. which had to be returned to the rental place. As usual, Capt. Steve Nicoulin was out doing deckhand duties or whatever needed to be done, and Chief Scotty was loading the rental stuff. Mate Bobby Heyn, a few deckhands, F&B Manager Homer Ellis, and Ken, Suzi, and I were pretty much the only other crew around at that hour. A walk around the boat, over air mattress beds, showed a different atmosphere than 12 hours earlier. Capt. Bill Ray of the BELLE brought a friend over for a few final souvenirs, and Capt. Eddie Mattingly of the BELLE made a similar visit. After a couple hours of hauling and storing the remaining goods, it was time to get Suzi back to the hotel to meet the airport shuttle. The women and non-navigation crew had two different flights, while the 18 navigation men were heading home via boat. Going downstream, they expect to eclipse their 7.5 day journey upriver and have hopes of getting back to Toulouse Street by Saturday night. Since their departure time was unknown, only that it would be sometime after noon, I again opted for common sense and did not wait around to watch her leave. As Suzi and I were driving away, the DQ began rounding to into the BELLE's former spot below the NATCHEZ. As I was tooling along I-74, the thought hit me: when in my life have I ever driven AWAY as the DQ was arriving???? Never! But the 423 mile drive was going to be taxing after 7 days of steamboating, so I had to get underway. The beautiful colored hillsides on the northwest side of Cincinnati reflected my spirits and hopefully reflect a bright future for the NATCHEZ and her crew. River 3 over and out......