It's Red Meat Day on the River!!

Taking Claujia, my new patron saint, at her word, I slept in and got to the galley at 9 am on the dot. The Lead Man, Kenny or Big Daddy, had already started my coals for the steaks and chicken breasts in the BBQ grill that is bolted to the deck right outside the galley door. Since I was on the main deck, I had to wear my work vest every time I went out to the grill. About 10 I gathered up my steaks, chicken and various utensils and went to the grill. As I stood there with the warm breeze blowing the smoke away from my face, (a definite plus over landside grilling), a couple of boats went past us on the river, one headed up river, the second down river to points south. We hadn't moved from Cora Coal yet as we were waiting on our 20 barges to be filled with coal to be transported to Memphis. All I could think was, "Wow! Am I really here? And I think I have the best job ever!!"

On Steak Day the guys can choose whether they have their steak at lunch or dinner. I only had 5 steaks to cook for lunch so I cooked 16 pieces of boneless chicken breasts as well. We planned on using them for the salad bar for a few days. Claujia was working on implementing a healthy eating plan and would be offering a Salad Bar at lunch and dinner along with an exercise plan. She was writing it out by hand and was going to make a chart. I asked her if we could use the computer in the officer's lounge outside my quarters. She said she didn't know, cause she didn't use computers but would ask at lunch. I told her we could type, edit and print her document and graph in no time. At lunch she asked Captain John Wayne, (yes his real name) and he said go for it. He was behind the program and his excitement was contagious.

Let me stop here and introduce the nine people I would be rooming with for the next 7 days.

• Captain John Wayne is from Ohio and is a former Marine in his mid-sixties. He spends the winters in Florida with his wife. He has been on the river 4o years.
• Pilot Stacy is a sorta keep to himself kinda guy. His job is to pilot the boat when the Captain is off duty. (They change shifts every six hours.)
• Chief Engineer Randall is new to this boat but an old friend of the Captain and has worked on the river about 25 years. He is from Lexington, TN, and is full of entertaining stories. He knows lots of people on different boats and said when I find out my boat, he'll find out about the crew.
• Mate David is in charge of the deckhands and making tows and any housekeeping chores on the boat. He is a younger guy, also from Ohio, with a wife and two children. We haven't gotten off to a stellar start but I'm going to win him over.
• Leadman Kenny is a Mississippi boy from Yazoo City. He has been very nice to me, but doesn't talk much. He is like me and doesn't like anyone touching what he eats. So Claujia bags cookies and wraps cake or muffins individually. He did tell me that he liked that I wore gloves!! lol
• Deckhand Darrell is also from Mississippi near Vicksburg. He is also very quiet. But we have talked briefly about his girlfriend in Vicksburg and maybe getting married.
• Deckhand Blake is from Arkansas and is really trying to eat healthy and lose weight.
• Deckhand Kevin is originally from Wisconsin and is a gentle giant. He hasn't been hard to please so far.
• Cook Claujia of course I have already mentioned. She has been fantastic and so willing to help me. She is originally from Virginia and her family has been involved extensively with Special Olympics. She has a daughter that is 19 so we have been comparing notes!! Although she has only been on the river since July she has bounced around a lot of boats doing fill-in work. The JB Wyatt is her first permanent assignment.

We spent about an hour making Claujia's plan a reality with Meals, Moving and Manners as the three points. (Being an old schoolteacher, I had to have some alliteration in there. :D) We also came up with a chart for recording progress and opportunities for bonus points for trying new foods and reading labels. Captain John loved it and so did the crew. He sent our plan to Paducah operations manager and he sent it on to Nashville. They liked it so much they sent it out to all the boat captains!! And Claujia got a nice kudo in the company newsletter. I'm anxious to see how it goes!!

After firing up the grill again, we cooked the evening steaks and some hamburgers. These guys are great. They rinse their plates, put them in the dishwasher, sweep and mop the floors, clean the stove and empty the dishwasher when it is finished. And every one of them thanks us for the meal. All I want to know is which one is going home with me, cause I'm going to be spoiled rotten!!!

Tomorrow is Fried Chicken Day!! Woop woop! Claujia said she had never fried anything before the River. I asked if she was going to soak the chicken before she cooked it. She looked at me with a puzzled expression. I asked if she wanted me to show her how to deep fry it. Cause a Mississippi girl can fry up some chicken!!! She had never seen that done so I was gonna be able to teach her something while she taught me bread making. It was another good day on the river.