Week 264 - Whatever Floats your Boat - 09-04-2011

Life on the Duck Meister

On Monday, we took our motorhome to the Cummin's Crosspoint "hospital" in Louisville, Kentucky. 1) Ellen sits in the waiting room as the MotherSick is wheeled in for surgery. 2) A few hours later our technician Jeremy has peeled back the skin to get to heart of the matter.

With the patient in capable hands, we headed off to the OtherShip. Our new Elk friend Duck graciously offered us his 41 foot Marinette yacht for our stay. This yacht has master bedrooms fore and aft and a spacious living area.

A full galley and nice decks front, rear and on the fly bridge.

The Duck Meister is moored at the Limestone Bay Club which has a restaurant on site. Within a few miles, there are many more great eating places. Harrods Creek flows into the Ohio River.

Cunningham's Creekside is a wonderful restaurant right on the creek. There is sitting indoors and outdoors on multiple levels. The food is great, prices reasonable and it is fun to watch the boats triple-park and see how the pilots jockey the boats and move in and out as diners come and go.

On Wednesday, back at the hospital, the Mother~~Sick~~Ship is undergoing six-cylinder bypass surgery. Jeremy works from the back end as well as from the hatch in the bedroom floor. The small door we were aware of can be extended once the closet doors are removed. It is large enough to work on the engine block from above.

All the bad parts have been carved out and the MotherShip waits for a transplant. New organs it will get include six pistons, six cylinder sleeves, six rings, six rod bearings, a turbocharger and head. This might be the world's first successful complete head transplant!

Cummins is well aware of what dust can do to your engine. This desktop illustration shows how long it takes for a small amount of sand to ruin your engine. The hour glass is the width of a No. 2 pencil and takes just a few minutes to descend. If that much dust goes through your engine in that amount of time, well then, you'll need to visit Cummins Crosspoint!

Back outside the operating room, we took time to have lunch with Preston. Preston is Cummin's Corp's consumer advocate. If you have an issue with a Cummin's dealer, you can contact Preston for his opinion and help. We met him over the phone in Anchorage. He helped us get a large refund for service rendered at multiple Cummins locations. And we just learned that he is a good friend of Ellen's cousin in Ohio.

The trip to the OtherShip takes us down Lime Kiln Lane. The lane itself is a two mile tunnel carved through the trees (as is the case in Kentucky about a thousand other places). Along this lane are some nice houses . . .

. . . like this one! We always wanted our four acres in Atascadero to be covered in grass. That would cost thousands of dollars each month to take care of. Here in Kentucky, God seeds the whole state and waters it too!

Dateline Friday: While not breathing on its own, the Mothership is out of the CCU and resting comfortably. All the new parts are in place and the patient is not rejecting them. Now, we just need to get dressed and get out of here! Some therapy will be necessary to nurse her back to normal life. An injection of cash for starters!

With Labor Day weekend approaching, we took the opportunity to enjoy another restaurant on the water. This is Captain's Quarters on the Ohio River,about one mile from the OtherShip. Food was great, prices reasonable and there was a Beatles Tribute band performing. You know, we just might be able to get used to Kentucky.

We'll visit our baby on Tuesday and will probably be able to take her home by Wednesday.

For now, please reply to this email and let us know what you are doing. If you don't, we'll make ya walk the plank! Arrrrrr

Love, Pete and Ellen

Photos from Sep 2011