Day 10-11, Valentine, NE, 575 miles

The 2008 AAA Glidden Tour officially ended Friday, September 12. The last day's touring had a moderate agenda, just points of interest in La Crosse and a riverboat brunch cruise up the Mississippi.

Noteworthy was a tour of the Skipperliner boat plant. The name Skipperliner conjures images of a small fiberglass sport boat. Not so, Skipperliners are mostly huge steel boats built for commercial dinner cruises. Their largest boats are 150' long by 40' beam. Dinner cruising is a big growth industry, if you've visited to a port city, you may have seen one of their ships. They also build boxy houseboats for individuals, the smaller ones starting at $200K. All the boats are built mostly by hand, with large steel subassemblies fabricated by subcontractors along the Mississippi. Hulls are barge like, very shallow draft. Most are motored down the Mississippi to destinations around the world, but some are partially dismantled and shipped by truck. Lakes Powell and Meade are common destinations for Skipperliners, boats are trucked there.


Naturally, our riverboat cruise vessel was a Skipperliner. This was a dual paddlewheel variant, it could seat about 100 for dinner. On board was live entertainment by a very skilled banjo/bass team.

The delicious closing banquet was a fitting conclusion for this tour. The organizers did a great job and all tourists enjoyed the entire week. It went very fast. It was sad for it to end. We said goodbye to new and old friends.
Portland, Oregon will host the 2009 Glidden Tour. Hmm, that's just a tad closer to Albuquerque.

I was planning a more southern route home, but it looked like the remnants of Hurricane Ike would cross that path. We decided to return the way we came, heading west to Murdo, South Dakota and down US 83 through Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. As often happens on the way home, we covered more miles than we expected on the first day. We went 575 miles, thanks partially to staying on I-90 for most of the day. Traffic was light and La Salle seemed to enjoy the interstate. The miles simply rolled by.