The first Rivertrek was a six and one-half month adventure.
The first two weeks were in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, running Fall Color Cruises for the local tourism commission. The next stop was Savannah, TN. A real friendly town, with the interesting Tennessee River Museum. Perryville, TN and Paris Landing State Park were the next two stops.
The lock at Kentucky Lock was closed for repairs so we went through the Barkley Canal to the Cumberland River and onto Paducah, KY.
Paducah, KY, our last stop on the Tennessee River. A classic river town, and typical of the river, lots of friendly people. Don’t miss the Paducah River Heritage Museum. Then down the Ohio River to the “big muddy”, the Mississippi River. A brief stop in Memphis, TN, for food and fuel then on down river.
Our next two stops were Greenville and Vicksburg, MS, both river towns with lots of history. A one night stay in Natchez at ‘Under the Hill’ and on to New Orleans, LA. A one-day layover in New Orleans for maintenance then across Lake Pontchartrain, through the Rigoletts to Mississippi Sound. We stopped in Gulfport to let a weather front pass by then continued eastward.
Ft. Walton Beach we spent Christmas with new friends, then onto Apalachicola, FL. Again a stop for supplies and back onto a river, northbound on the Apalachicola River. We anchored one night at the mouth of the River Styx and arrived in Bainbridge GA, on the Flint River, in time to celebrate New Years Eve.
The next stop was Columbia AL. A truly remarkable place, everyone was extraordinarily friendly and helpful, and we experienced amazing turnouts for the public cruises. Then back to Bainbridge, GA and on downriver to Sneads, FL. We operated from the Seminole Lodge, great folks. Wewahitchka, FL, home of Tupelo honey, on the Chipola River was our last stop in this part of the country. Leaf Myciak on his boat the “Broadened Horizons” came up river from Apalachicola to visit.
Heading toward home, we went back through Apalachicola and Mobile Bay to the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to Columbus, MS. We had previously spent a couple of years in Columbus, and we greatly enjoyed running cruises through their Spring Pilgrimage. Leaving Columbus, MS we traveled on up the Tenn-Tom Waterway and back onto the Tennessee River. We spent a couple of days in Huntsville, AL and South Pittsburg, TN.
Our last school cruise for the inaugural Rivertrek was happily for a local school. The Learning Center, from Jasper, TN rode on Nickajack reservoir.
The morning of our arrival home, we stopped a few miles down river and picked up Jeff Styles, from WGOW Radio, 102.3, and a number of regular listeners, for the final ride into town.
Rivertrek – we visited 15 communities, travel over 3000 miles, carried almost 10,000 passengers, and spent almost 6 ½ months.
To our knowledge, no one in the history of riverboating has taken such a trip with the primary reason of school tours, and there is more yet to come!
Chattanooga Star Riverboat
We hope some of you will enjoy these statistics from Rivertrek 98/99. This is a list of the communities, number of passengers, and river mileage’s for the different waterways of this past year’s journey.
City # trips # public # students total
Tennessee River
Iuka, MS 14 784 784
Savannah, TN 6 64 356 420
Perryville, TN 2 136 136
Paris Landing State Park, TN 3 263 263
Paducah, KY 12 965 965
Mississippi River
Greenville, MS 9 49 43 92
Vicksburg, MS 1 53 53
Chattahoochee River
Columbia, AL 24 1374 451 1825
Flint River
Bainbridge, GA 23 670 308 978
Lake Seminole at the juncture of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers
Sneads, FL 16 312 288 600
Apalachicola River
Wewahitchka, FL 35 579 863 1442
Tenn-Tom Waterway
Columbus, MS 39 554 1244 1798
Tennessee River
Huntsville, AL 1 26 26
South Pittsburgh, TN 2 26 26
Jasper, TN 1 14 14
Totals 188 4412 5010 9422
21 Locks transited in 29 Lockages
Tennessee River -- Chatt. TN – Paducah, KY 465 mi.
Ohio River -- Paducah, KY – Cairo, IL 55 mi.
Mississippi River -- Cairo, IL – New Orleans, LA 862 mi.
Lake Pontchartrain & Rigoletts 30 mi.
Intracoastal Waterway -- Rigoletts – Apalachicola, FL 315 mi.
Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, Flint, Chipola Rivers 368 mi.
Intracoastal Waterway -- Apalachicola, FL – Mobile Bay 200 mi.
Mobile Bay 30 mi.
Tombigbee River & Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway 450 mi.
Tennessee River -- Yellow Creek – Chattanooga, TN 250 mi.
Miles transited 3025
Miles cruised with passengers 1128
Total mileage 4153