When the Delta Queen docks in Vicksburg on Nov. 3, the steamboat will be met with hoopla that quite possibly will signal the 82-year-old’s last visit to the city.

The boat’s future is sandwiched between parent company plans to sell Majestic America Line, which operates the Delta Queen and other heartland riverboats, and a U.S. House committee chairman who has vowed to block further exemptions from the 1966 Safety of Life at Seas Act, which the boat needs to continue overnight cruises.

The boat’s farewell tour, which Majestic is calling the 2008 Delta Queen Tribute Event, will see the Delta Queen stop at Greenville, Vicksburg and Natchez en route to New Orleans and retirement.

The stop in Vicksburg will see Mayor Laurence Leyens and others board the boat for a tribute and celebration.