This journey down the lower portion of the Mississippi River is a logistical nightmare for Viking. I was wondering why we had to spend 7 hours yesterday on 2 bus rides to get to the ship. I mean, Memphis sits right on the Mississippi River! When I asked the pilot yesterday he said that last year when the water level go so low, their "low water barge" (which I assume is a floating platform that would sit between the ship and the pier). He said that when the water came back up, the barge didn't. Now it's stuck in their spot and the state/federal agencies have not been able to figure out who is supposed to remedy the issue.
So, they have a fleet of buses!
They made it really easy and it was almost like a ballet. Our group took off at 8:15 and drove about 2-1/2 hours to Cleveland. Mississippi, not Ohio. If you're a fan of HGTV's Hometown, Cleveland is like Laurel, Mississippi but a whole lot smaller! There just happened to be an art and music festival going on. We wandered around for awhile and then went in search of lunch. With a very small downtown area, the pickings were slim. We wandered into Backdraft because it sounded like it might be connected with firefighting. And it was. The food was unexpected for a dive bar. Mae had what she calls the best fried chicken sandwich she's had in years. I dove into the local cuisine and had a fried crawfish tail salad. It was great.
After lunch we headed to the Grammy Museum. It is a sister museum to the one in Los Angeles and very well done. The location was determined based on the contribution of the blues and rock and roll artists that came from Mississippi and the Highway 61 route. Delta State University is adjacent to the museum and prides itself on developing top talent for the music production field. And they train pilots to be crop dusters.
The first thing we did at the museum was check in to the ship. It took us less than 5 minutes to get our keys. We were promised that would be no waiting at the ship and that our luggage would be in our staterooms. Both of which were true.
The Viking Mississippi is a purpose-built ship for the Mississippi River and has been in service for less than 2 years. It has a capacity of 386 passengers and 148 crew members. It's sleek and really easy to get around. They brought in a really good blues singer who kept the evening lively.
