It's Our 10th Wedding Anniversary

 We Celebrated Our 10th Anniversary

On a Cruise Along the Mississippi

Maude & Bob Pych

ALONG THE MIGHTY RIVER

Our 10^th Anniversary vacation—October, 2016

When people heard we were celebrating

our 10^th anniversary

there was always that look of surprise—

They expected to hear it was our 50^th, at least!

Bob and I became friends following the demise

of our spouses and now enjoy the sweetness

of mature love and someone across the table

during these, our golden years

We were on a long anticipated river cruise

chugging along the muddy Mississippi

from Memphis to New Orleans

aboard a brand new paddle-wheel boat

built to look like a historical old steamboat

We enjoyed spicy Cajun and Creole cuisine

and music by a different jazz band every evening

Thoughts of Tom Sawyer, Huck

and Becky sprang to mind along the brush

and coves and beyond the levees. Imagination

carried us past whitewashed fences

and old graveyards with tumble-down tombstones

inscribed with indecipherable names and dates

We visited the Civil War battlefield

at Vicksburg, Tennessee, and toured

stately plantation mansions

boasting yesteryear charm in every room

and saw former cotton fields that now grow

sugar cane since the widespread infestation

by the destructive boll weevil

We peeked inside long empty slave quarters

deep in the old south

Then we disembarked and spent a few days

in the Big Easy’s quirky French Quarter

where structures from the 1800s clearly showed their age

and where strings of gaudy beads dangled

from tree branches since Mardi Gras last spring

We took a stroll down Bourbon Street

as jazz saxes and trumpets blared

from inside the pubs

and young street musicians

banged on plastic containers and paint cans—

a constant noisy battle of the bands

We were surrounded by so much to do and see

and history so old, it made us feel young

Maude Carolan Pych