BETTENDORF, Iowa-- For the first time in more than two decades, there's no longer a riverboat on the Bettendorf riverfront.
On Sunday, October 16, 2016, the Isle of Capri casino boat set sail from the Quad Cities. The boat is headed to Memphis, Tennessee, where its new owners will renovate it as a cruise ship. It will then return to the river in 2017 as the "American Duchess."
Quad City residents, like Wanda Hartwigsen, gathered on the levee this morning to say goodbye. Before the boat left, Hartwigsen told News 8, "I'm sure when I see that heading downstream, it's going to be a little sad. But I also understand that times change, and that maybe the concept of the riverboat and Mark Twain and riverboat gambling is sort of passe now."
The riverboat was sold to make way for an expanded land-based casino, which opened at the same site earlier this year.