PEDAL POWER

[HostDave]

When was the last time you really slowed down and enjoyed life? At the American Queen Steamboat Company, we are dedicated to offering river voyages that allow you to do just that. On the recent maiden cruise of our new 223-guest American Empress on the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest, some of the invited journalists were captivated by the bicycles we had on board. The American Queen, which sails the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, has featured bikes on board for over two years now yet it seems this wonderful feature hasn’t been noticed as much as we thought by the media. However, it’s certainly noticed, and appreciated, by our guests.

Both riverboats carry a small fleet of bicycles available to our guests in our ports of call. While our complimentary Hop-On, Hop-Off Tours in each port are one of the best possible ways to see all that there is to see (guests can get on and off the motorcoach at different stops and spend as much time in each attraction as they wish), riding a bike ashore brings a whole new dimension to travel. In fact, we highly recommend partaking in a Hop-On, Hop-Off tour, then returning to the boat and grabbing a bicycle and helmet to explore some of the areas of each destination that are farther off the beaten path.

The advantage of biking is that you can cover far more ground than walking, it’s easier on the knees and feet, and it’s an idyllic, quiet way to blend with the neighborhoods and truly experience the essence of a small town. Interestingly, for us to characterize bicycling through a community as relaxing and a way to slow down and enjoy life is completely at odds with most people’s feelings about bicycles when they were first invented in the 1800s. They were considered an absurdly fast means of transport suitable only for daredevils. In fact, the rise of the bicycle and the emergence of the steamboat as a means of transport occurred at approximately the same time and both were considered newfangled inventions that, since they conveyed people faster than the average person could walk, a dangerous and somewhat reckless endeavor.

A German, Baron Karl von Drais, is often considered the father of the bicycle since he created a two-wheeled vehicle in 1817 which gained recognition in Paris a year later. It was referred to as the “dandy horse” at the time. It had no pedals; the rider simply pushed himself along with his feet. Clearly there was room for improvement, although it took a couple decades before anyone came up with a better idea. Around 1839, a Scottish blacksmith named Kirkpatrick MacMillan tried to improve on the design but was ticketed for knocking over a little girl in Glasgow with his “velocipede of ingenious design.”

Pedals finally debuted in the 1860s, nearly a half century after Baron Karl von Drais’ awkwardly-designed breakthrough. With a crankshaft and pedals, one could much more easily move from place to place on land. Around this same time, steamboats were the primary means of transport in the United States, outside of horse-drawn carriages and sailing ships, of course. Railroads were still in their infancy, although they would soon eclipse the great steamboats of Mark Twain’s era toward the end of the century.

By 1869, the bicycle wheel as we know it today, a thin rim and many wire spokes, was patented. At the time, bicycles were a novelty in Europe where most progress in their design evolution took place and they were known as velocipedes or as “penny-farthings.” Enhancement of the basic concept was swift, with chains used to connect pedals to the back tire rather than pedaling the large front tire directly. Eventually, the giant front wheel and tiny rear wheel shrunk and expanded, respectively, until two wheels of equal diameter became the standard. The peak of steamboat design and grandeur in the 1880s and 1890s coincided with what many refer to as the Golden Age of Bicycles. In both Europe and America, cycling clubs were the rage and bicycles, along with horse-drawn carriages, were the most efficient means of land transport in cities and towns until the advent of the automobile after the turn of the 20th century.

Of course, as time marched on, the fate of the steamboat and the bicycle diverged quickly. Trains, personal cars and airplanes supplemented and then virtually eliminated the need for passenger-carrying riverboats. Though thoroughly modern in design, safety and amenities, the American Queen and American Empress are two of the very, very few throwbacks to that era of great riverboats. Bicycles remained popular even as steamboats declined, and today they are not just for recreation. Particularly in the narrow streets of old European cities and the crowded streets of China, bicycles are an essential, non-polluting, and delightful means of transport.

But even on the broad, tree-lined streets of the cities and towns along the routes of the American Queen and American Empress, bicycles have lost none of their charm. There is nothing quite like sitting astride a modern, well-maintained bicycle, your helmet firmly planted on your head, and setting off on an adventure. As our guests ride away from the waterfront and deeper into a town, they leave today behind and enter a simpler, more relaxed time when neighbors stopped to say hello to one another and invited each other onto the front porch for a glass of sweet tea or lemonade. On a bike, you feel the breeze against your face, and you smell the fragrance of magnolia blossoms in the South or the scent of pine trees in the Pacific Northwest. Intermingled might be the smoky aroma of a fireplace or a barbeque and the delicious and reassuring bouquet of freshly baked bread sitting by an open window to cool.

As you pass by homes and business, people wave and our guests wave back, exchanging quick pleasantries. The bicycles we carry on board our riverboats do more than transport our guests from Point A to Point B; they take them to a place where life is less hurried, far more polite and infinitely more rewarding.