Will It Ever Get Cooler?

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By Timothy Rubacky, Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Product Development

In general, I’m a fairly easy-going guy. I tend to roll with the punches. I spent the last several years in Florida so I thought I was used to heat. It wouldn’t generally get hotter than 95 on the hottest summer day. It was terribly humid, of course, but still the heat was manageable as we all darted from air-conditioned offices to air-conditioned cars to air-conditioned homes.

I knew it might, at times, get a bit hotter than 95 here in the Heartland. I was not, however, prepared for stretches of days with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees. One night at 7pm I was leaving the office, hopped in the car and saw the temperature was still 100 degrees. The forecast for the next day was a mind-boggling 107 degrees. I dearly love Memphis, but one should only be able to barbeque in a pit, not simply by holding a chicken above an asphalt road!

All joking aside, it has been a hot summer so far throughout most of the country. Summer-like temperatures arrived in many parts of the United States as early as March and it’s only gotten warmer since then. In fact, the first six months of this year are the hottest on record by a considerable margin. Little Rock recorded 107, two towns in Oklahoma hit 112 degrees and in Kansas City the highs refused to dip below 100 day after day. The northeast hasn’t made out much better either, with scorching temperatures in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC.

I’d like to point out that it’s cooler on the river than it is inland. Couple that with the motion of a steamboat and it’s much more pleasant. American river cruises with the American Queen Steamboat Company just might help you forget the heat for a little while. After all, we do have an ice cream machine on the American Queen’s Front Porch of America running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

You may be saying to yourself: “That all well and good, but I’m not ON the American Queen right now!”

I empathize, because neither am I. Just like you, I’m looking forward to cooler temperatures. I can’t wait until the leaves start to turn their myriad colors. There’s a tree on my street that explodes into fiery red leaves every fall. Leaves around the country turn gold, orange and bright shades of red to herald the arrival of autumn. There simply isn’t enough sunlight in the winter for photosynthesis so leaves start to shed their chlorophyll that gives them their summer green. The glucose trapped in the leave then brings on bright colors such as crimsons and purples. The slight chill in the air in the evening does the rest.

If the idea of riotous colors all around you and evenings with just enough of a chill to require a light sweater yet are still wonderfully refreshing and comfortable sounds like heaven, then what are you waiting for? Now is the time to think about booking one of our fall foliage voyages. Journeys between St. Paul and St. Louis offer the best of the Upper Midwest and a stunningly beautiful palette of autumnal colors along the banks of the river and in towns like Red Wing, La Crosse and Winona.

As you slowly melt into the hot pavement this summer, just imagine yourself aboard the grand American Queen, a slight nip in the air as the sun sets below the horizon casting its golden light across a fertile landscape of golds, yellow, reds and oranges that reflect the sun’s rays back as if in a surrealist painting. But do more than just dream. Go ahead and take that next step and book one of our fall journeys on the river and each time you close your eyes, know that moment is drawing closer and closer.

Steamboating is magnetic, but the anticipation of the voyage is pure magic.