The friend who crashed (figuratively only) at our place Sunday on his annual bike tour wanted to try the backwater eco-tour offered through Mississippi Explorer Cruises (actually based in Lansing, IA). One thing that surprised me about the outing, however, was the fact that the economics of the river were fully integrated into the information. Ditto the engineering (e.g. the dredging and lock and dam system) that goes into keeping the river navigable for shipping traffic. Definitely a change of pace from the usual exercise of pointing out critters to gawp at. I rather liked that--it felt considerably more complete than what normally--in my limited experience--amounts to a trip to a floating zoo.
When you add popcorn, soda and jujubees onto the price of a ticket, the price of a movie comes out even with the cost of two hours on a pimped-out pontoon boat. Not a bad deal, when you consider that you're pretty much guaranteed to come out of the tour more informed about the world around us. Offhand, I can't think of very many movies that will do that.
