Where is everyone #5

No worries I will kick this in the back pockets.

 

Guess I'll enjoy a hot coffee and some tunes before I head off to work. Got a split tractor to put back to together today. Can't imagine its fun to work around having your main feeding tractor out of action.

 

What state was this in? I keep wondering if it was my old home town.

 

Not bad for a $3.74 fix. Reamed out the wallowed out casting and pressed in some bushings I machined to fit the hinge pins.

 

Yeah that looks really cold.

One of my bucket list items was to ride the Delta Queen (paddle wheel big boat.) From one end of the Mississippi to the other. So when I had a chance to do a "4 hour cruise" out of Hannibal MO I jumped at it. I was never so sick in my life. Had I been a better swimmer I might of jumped in and swam back to shore.

Funny now, but then..not so much.

 

I know the feeling. I'm pretty comfortable in the water, but there's times....

This same kid I went to pull in had gone with me to this same lake a bunch. The lake is real shallow on the west side, and when it's windy can really bring up some breakers.

We launched the boat on the east side at around 3am one late January morning about 8 years ago. There's islands out there they call the cattail islands, and they block some wind at the ramp.

Well, we get 5 or so miles from the ramp fixin to round a corner of the cattails, and the wind stops us. Waves rollin 4 and 5 ft high. Luckily I was in my river boat and not my Gatortail, but my river boat is only 17'.

We hit the island and waited for it to die down. It kept getting worse, and finally around 10am we heard another boat behind us.

Figuring it was better to head in in pairs, we pulled out.

Besides being thrown out of my boat in an early April flood on the Arkansas, I've never been so nervous.

Rollers were 6 to 7 feet by then, and it was a constant battle throttling in, throttling out, hitting the crest just right, falling in the hole. It took 45 minutes to get back to the ramp.

Back at the ramp, the boat behind us pulled up. 2 young kids, maybe 16-17. Acted like it was no big deal. They had killed a few ducks even.

I pretty much don't hunt Oklahoma anymore.

 

That's a heck of a feeder.

 

I find it odd that I can operate a Air boat or a John boat and not have a problem but a deep V jet boat or a whaler and I am very sick.

Anyway the Delta Queen was scratched off of my bucket list.

They have a dinner cruise in NOLA on a paddle boat. I did have ####tails and dinner and no problem. I then strolled the deck -after sunset- and not one queasy feeling. Odd.


Good thing I didn't join the Navy.

You know for such a high dollar hotel, the hospital, they have terrible food. I didn't think you could ruin oatmeal, but they did.
I am now texting friends SOS's to bring in something delicious to eat.

Doctor said it would be several days here. I have to be able to pass a "lung function test of at least 95" before going home would be considered. I have asked my RN friend for a layman translation when she gets a chance.

Enough of my rambling, the nurse is back to do the same thing she did and hour ago and some nurse will do it 24 hours a day. That is already old.

 

Heck, at 16/17 yrs old, we all thought we were 10’ tall and bulletproof. Ain’t nothing taking us down!

Those youngsters probably had a blast hitting those rollers! Wide open throttle and music crankin’

dam, i miss those days, did stupid #### that shoulda killed me but made it to 56 yrs old with nothing but a few scars and stories, however those days are nothing but a memory now.

 

Yep. From their looks, it didn't bother them one bit. Even though they were youngsters, they may have known the lake better, or maybe knew the boat better.

Most likely though, just a little bit more naive than us.

Looking back on it, it was one of those days some unlucky duck hunters don't come home.

Luckily not ours, but it's an unfortunate frequent occurrence around here.