A CHANGE OF PACE: FLOATING HOTEL SLOWLY PLIES THE RIVERS

Cruising the Mississippi on the River Explorer is going with the unhurried flow. The barge's top speed is 15 miles per hour.

Passengers on the 730-foot floating hotel often loll on lattice-steel chaise lounges on the top deck, bask in the sun, watch clouds cross the sky or take a turn at shuffleboard. A cookout is occasionally held topside.

It may sound like a slow boat to boredom. But most passengers savor the pokey pace.

The RiverBarge River Explorer, which schedules excursions on the Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri Rivers, has no problem finding takers for its cruises.

"We'll be ready to go again soon," said Frank Cattaneo of Belleville, Ill., Friday. "This is our fourth trip on the River Explorer, and we're already looking forward to the fifth."

The RiverBarge was in Cape Girardeau Friday on its way to St. Louis. It will be back at about 6 p.m. today, said Zoe Fitzgerald, one of three RiverBarge Excursion representatives who was onboard Friday to conduct tours aboard the boat.

Not much glitz

Unlike popular paddlewheelers that ply the same waters, RiverBarge doesn't offer a lot glitz. The decor is more Holiday Inn than high Victorian. Mealtime is come-as-you-are (no assigned seating), and the entertainment tends toward guest lecturers and indigenous music performances rather than ice cream socials or sock hops.

But RiverBarge market representative Larry Conrad says the target audience, Americans 40 and older, is drawn to that, as well as the casual atmosphere, the large staterooms, the no-tipping policy and the price tag. A RiverBarge cruise costs less than paddlewheel excursions and includes meals and shore tours, everything except alcohol and phone calls.

The trips, which run from four to 10 days, range from $700 to $2,800. Because rivers can be so unpredictable, the crew tries to build enough time into its schedule that tours aren't affected by delays.

The company is starting to add one-night trips, like from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis, to the schedule when possible.

At Cape Girardeau, the Convention and Visitors Bureau arranges bus transportation for passengers and makes suggestions of things to do. Many of the passengers take advantage of downtown retail stores.

Butch Pursell and his wife, Maxine, of Elizabeth City, N.J., were among satisfied customers Friday. "We'll be back," Pursell said. "You see a lot on a cruise like this."

Ray Johnson of Forrest, Ill., making his first RiverBarge trip, liked the cruise because it was so "relaxed."

"You have a lot of space here," said Johnson, who was aboard with his wife, Inez. "It's a long way from one end of the barge to the other."

Fitzgerald said the barge's load runs from 75 to 198 passengers.

Didn't happen overnight

The idea of creating an excursion boat from river barges didn't come overnight, said Eddie Conrad, a former deckhand and an owner of the RiverBarge Excursions Lines Inc. At one time, Conrad ran what he called an RV barge, taking recreational vehicles and their owners up and down a portion of the lower Mississippi. When others expressed a desire to travel on the barge, the idea of a "floating hotel" developed. Conrad and Jeffrey D. Kriday put their idea on the water in 1998.

"Most people haven't ever had the chance to see what it is like to live on the barges, and we are doing our best to share that with them," Conrad said.

Without the experience of life on the river, people are missing out on history and culture, he said.

Every river town has a different personality, and every river is different, Fitzgerald said. "I've been to a lot of places over the past three years," she said. "This gives people who haven't seen Mississippi, Ohio or Missouri River up close a chance to see things along the river."

"I never realized how much traffic there is on the river," said Roland Friedrichs, of Houston, Texas. "There are a lot of boats out there."

"You think it's just water and trees, but this is not what I've seen before," Fitzgerald said as she gazed out a window to see the Illinois side of the Mississippi River from the dock in Cape Girardeau. "Taking a trip aboard the River Explorer isn't like taking a cruise. People need to keep an open mind so their eyes can see."

BARGE SCHEDULE

The RiverBarge River Explorer will stop at least five times in Cape Girardeau this season:

* July 30-July 31 (overnight), 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

* Aug. 9, 4 a.m. to 2 p.m.

* Sept. 10, 3 a.m. to 1 p.m.

* Sept. 19, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

* Sept. 30-Oct. 1 (over-night), 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

On the Net

* www.riverbarge.com