High winds and choppy seas greeted the crew of the Lincoln Journey of Remembrance flatboat as it made its way to Elizabethtown Sept. 13.

The 60 feet long by 14 feet wide "crate on a box" was docked at the E-Town Restaurant on the river while the crew took a breather.

Some lounged on the dock of the restaurant, others rested at the Rose Hotel and others prepared for the refueling of the ship. There were a few hours to kill before the 6 p.m. celebration of barbecue.

Robert Lee Grose with his long white beard milled on the river bank. Grose 50 years ago made the trip from Spencer County, Ind., to New Orleans on a cruder flatboat using barrel floats and a motor not strong enough to return upstream. That first trip was in celebration of Abraham Lincoln's 150 birthday. They recreated the journey Abraham Lincoln took in 1828 at age 19 with friend Allen Gentry to deliver goods for Gentry's father, James Gentry, to New Orleans.

River rules have changed since that trip.

"There are all new laws. We have to have a licensed pilot and insurance. Before we never had nothing, but we made it," Grose said.

"A lot of folks said we would never make it, but we did. A lot of them bet on us."

Grose's first trip took 21 days. This trip is scheduled to be 30 days with numerous stops along the way for festivities.

Grose's knowledge of the river put him on board the first trip. Grose, from Grandview, Ind., said he was born on the river with just enough room between his parent's house and the Ohio to put a car through.

"I got my name from a boat. Mom said, 'What will we call that boy?' Dad said, 'There goes the Robert Lee. Let's call him Robert Lee,'" Grose said.

One of Grose's earliest boyhood memories is crawling and looking through the gaps in the floor planks of the house to see chickens walking around under him.

It was a big deal for Grose to do the trip again. He had earlier portrayed Allen Gentry, the ship captain, and Dwayne Walker portrayed Lincoln, the deck hand. Walker was also aboard the Journey of Remembrance, but tragedy befell him Friday in Mt. Vernon, Ind., when he fell in a motel parking lot and broke his elbow attempting to brace the fall. Casey McCoy, public relations man for the journey, drove the disappointed Walker to the hospital and said Walker hopes to return to the flatboat prior to New Orleans if he recovers in time.

Grose was sorry Walker could not continue to Cave-In-Rock and Elizabethtown. He said that leg of the journey was exciting with high winds related to the approaching hurricane Ike.

"When we go too fast and hit those big waves it's just like it's raining all the time," Grose said.
The barge traffic has not been a challenge. Grose said the captain radios the barges and "they slow up for you."

The Journey of Remembrance boat is built in the Kentucky-style of flat boats, very similar to the boat Lincoln would have built. John Cooper of Gallatin, Tenn., built the boat for attorney and former Indiana state legislator Ron Drake of Sullivan County, Ind., who in 2006 piloted the boat from Cincinatti, Ohio, to Cape Girardeau, Mo., in remembrance of his ancestors' journey by flatboat and keelboat.

Drake provided the boat to the Lincoln crew, underwrote the expedition, and is aboard.

The boat sleeps six with two on the floor. Inside are furs and hams like Lincoln would have been transporting to New Orleans.

Participating in the Lincoln trip has been an eye-opener for Cooper, building in his mind an image of Lincoln much more rounded than that as the president who did away with slavery.

"I'm a historian and I've studied a lot of different people. I knew who Lincoln was or thought I did. Since working on the boat I've studied Lincoln in detail and came to the conclusion he was our greatest President. Not one of the greatest, the greatest," Cooper said.

Lincoln had humble beginnings and all the makings for a strong leader.

"Abe Lincoln was more like Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone. It was before he was 20 years old when he made that trip. He wore a coonskin cap in the winter time, mocassins and a good shirt. He was good with a gun, a tomahawk and a knife," Cooper said.

Lincoln's journey was more than a footnote in the man's life. It was upon arriving in New Orleans Lincoln witnessed his first slave auction on the docks and he never forgot the disturbing scene.

The journey continues with stops in Fort Massac in Metropolis Sept. 16 and Cairo Sept. 17. The schedule puts the boat in New Orleans Oct. 5.