6/17/19 – Riverboat Discovery Cruise

I had a 2-for-1 coupon from the Alaska TourSaver for a cruise on the Riverboat Discovery.  We hadn’t cruised the Mississippi—I thought we should at least cruise the Chena River.

Most of the people on the cruise were from cruise ships, coming up from their port on train or tour bus.  We wandered around the gift shop, then had lunch, a cozy family style meal at tables shared with friendly total strangers.  The food just kept on coming. It took a while to get us all on board.

Soon after we left the dock, the narrator told us there was a Piper Cub right behind us.  The pilot brought the floatplane up alongside where he and the narrator had a radio discussion about the plane, Alaska bush pilots and a demo he was going to give.

He turned around, then flew into the wind for takeoff. That's a tiny little airplane!

The Discovery III is a Sternwheeler, so the paddlewheel is at the back, not on the side. Kind of fun to stand at the back of the boat and watch it go around.

We saw all kinds of houses along the river, from old log cabins with antlers on the roof to those under construction, from mansions to those in complete disrepair, but most in-between them all.  Some looked like they belonged in Alaska; some didn’t.  We have noticed that in order to live in Alaska, you need at least 2 vehicles in your yard (preferably pickup trucks) that are no longer drive-able.  Then you can add boats, snowmobiles, huge woodpiles.  True Alaskans may have every vehicle they've ever owned in the yard.

One of the stops along the river was at the kennels of 4-time Iditarod Champion Susan Butcher.  Susan died a few years ago, but her husband and daughters still run the kennels.  We stopped along the bank in front of the house.  One of Susan’s daughters was home from college and she commented from shore.

There were “Happy Birthday” pennants hanging by the house and everyone (dogs included) had on party hats.  Turned out it was the oldest dog’s birthday, but they all got to celebrate.  Some of the young puppies had never been down to the river, so they had a little socialization thing going on. Makes me want to have a puppy again…at least until I think about it and all the work that entails.

Then they harnessed the big dogs to an ATV and made a big circuit around the property.  They went from stationary to a full run when they heard "Hike!", making it look like it was not only easy, but really fun!

When they got back to the yard and were unharnessed, they headed to the river to cool off.

Just a little farther on the river and we stopped at a replica Athabascan fish camp, where the young native girl explained what all the buildings were, how the fish wheel worked, how she prepared salmon for smoking.

She finished her demonstration and headed to the main part of the village.  We got off the boat for this one, and they split us into groups and sent each group to a different part of the village where we were given presentations about village life.  When it was done, we moved on to a different section of the village.

(I absolutely love this parka!)

At one place there were reindeer, who are currently shedding their winter coat.  Makes them look pretty motley.  The antlers are still growing, and are covered in "velvet"--which is really skin, blood vessels, and soft fur.  

At the Chena Village PO, there’s a statue of Susan Butcher’s lead dog, Granite.

This cruise didn’t feel as commercial and canned as many touristy things like this.  For one thing, they had a lot of young people doing the presentations and they were naturally ebullient, sharing things they knew from either experience or family stories. It seemed that everyone involved had known each other for years—the narrator was a friend of the original Captain Binkley; they both knew Susan Butcher and got her kennel involved as part of the cruise; the narrator knew an Athabascan Elder whose idea it was to teach visitors about the old ways and that's how Chena Village came to be.  There was a comfortable feeling about their conversations, letting us recognize the friendships and relationships, but without making us feel odd man out.

Back at the wharf, we docked next to Discovery II.  I wonder if they use this one when there aren't so many people?

I've got even more pictures here:  Riverboat Cruise