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Article: Bargin' Inn Viewing America from the deck of the River Explorer.(Going Places)
- Article from:
- Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)
- Article date:
- March 12, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Paddock Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Friends raised eyebrows when we said we planned to travel from New Orleans to Galveston on a barge.
A barge? Did we mean a long, flat-bottomed black thing laden with lumber or coal? We've seen such barges, and while they appear to be quite functional, they do not inspire.
Ours was a different barge altogether. The 198-passenger River Explorer, America's first hotel barge, really is two barges - one for eating and socializing and one for sleeping. Miss Nari, a sturdy "towboat" harnessing the power of 3,000 horses, pushes them steadily along. Freshly painted red, white and blue and about as long as a short city block, "our" barge attracted all kinds of attention.
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