RiverBarge Excursion Lines, Inc., a cruise company based in New Orleans, owns the River Explorer, which is actually two barges tied together end to end and pushed by a smaller towboat. The company has been operating barge cruises along the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Cumberland Rivers since 1996. They have run the River Explorer since 1998. Up to now, Kansas City is the furthest they've come up the Missouri River.
 
The tourist ship has 98 staterooms, a dining room and bar, shuffleboard courts, a library, track and a gym. She holds 196 people and is 730 feet long and three decks high. It is so large that it will need to be literally pulled apart, turned around and reassembled for the return trip back down the river.
 
Reservations for boarding the ship in Kansas City can still be made. The eight-day cruise starts at $2,180 per person. based on double occupancy, and includes all meals, accommodations, taxes and gratuities. Stops will be made in St. Joseph, MO and Brownville, NE with the focus being on local lore and history of early explorers and pioneers who traveled the rivers. While docked in Bellevue, guests can visit local attractions such as Mahoney State Park, the Strategic Air and Space Museum and the Durham Western Heritage Museum in Omaha. Other site-seeing tours are being coordinated by the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce.
  
If you miss this opportunity to see and tour the River Explorer, you will get another chance when she makes a return trip on August 31st thru September 1st. For more information, visit their website at: www.riverbarge.com

The River Explorer will be open to the public for touring on Saturday August 25th and Saturday September 1st,  from 1PM to 3:30PM