This picture is from my 2009 Chattanooga Queen trip. The Delta Queen steamboat had been forced to stop cruising about six months before and was docked in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as a stationary hotel. I’d never felt like I could afford a cruise on her, and the odds that I ever will get an opportunity are not good. This might very well be the closest I’ll ever get. The minimum stay was not determined by the length of a cruise , and rates for the non-moving rooms were less than they had been for the moving ones. I reserved one of the cheapest rooms for two nights over Independence Day.

The experience was far better than I had any right to expect. Even though hopes of a reprieve from the cruising ban were dimming, they weren’t entirely extinguished when the Queen first arrived in Chattanooga. Although virtually all of the existing crew/staff had or were working on plans to leave, the majority were still in place during my July stay. I was treated to food and lounge service, and even entertainment that differed little from that offered during cruises a few months prior. I stayed twice more on the Delta Queen while she was in Chattanooga, and, while I truly enjoyed both of those stays, neither compared to that first one.

The photo used as this blog’s banner was taken on the Delta Queen‘s next to last stop (so far) in the Queen City. She paused in Cincinnati, her home port, twice during the wind-down to docking in Chattanooga, and I was at both. My report on those visits is here.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full sized photo and the associated trip journal.