My daughter and I took a break from concerting last night, and we saw St. Louis from a riverboat on the waters of the mighty Mississippi River. And boy, oh boy, what an ugly view … except when we were passing The Arch.
I don’t want to make any “arch” enemies of readers in St. Louis, so I will note that St. Louis offers a beautiful riverfront park by The Arch. But the rest of the riverfront is very industrial and agricultural. The view of and smell from the asphalt manufacturing plant was … memorable. And if you like to listen to a running commentary from the ship’s captain about bridges, tugboats, and barges (who wouldn’t?), then this is the riverboat tour for you.
However, I was very concerned about this sign I saw on the boat.
When I saw it, I whipped out my phone, opened the calculator app, and did some quick math. I did not like my odds of survival at only 60%. I immediately started scoping out the crowd for kids, the elderly, and the infirm from whom I thought I could wrestle a lifejacket. Unfortunately, I think I fall into that category of elderly and infirm from the perspective of others who were scoping out the crowd for the exact same reason. Fortunately, we made it back to shore safely and a little bit wiser about the tugboats that maneuver barges full of grain and industrial products up and down the mighty Mississippi under bridges.
I helped the riverboat crew chain the boat to shore, and we were off.
With this being part of a series of musical posts, and this specific post being very non-musical, I figured I would end this post with a Fleetwood Mac song consistent with the last pic above.
Jim Flanigan Looks at the World 