12 Mile Island Caper

Jim,

Deb and I would love to be included, if you have room. I'm not sure if this is the appropriate way to contact you, but dot.org indicates that your e-mail is private, so I guess this must do. If you need to contact us our e-mail is: [email protected]

Can't wait...

Bruno and Debbie Krause

Bruno: MISSIE may place a tax on your ability to run a steamboat at Twelve Mile Island! Mebbe you can practice up and play her one-note calliope!...You can play anything you like as long as it doesn't last over three, or mebbe even four, seconds!...Cap'n Walnut.

oh my, this is just gonna be sooo cool... 🙂

I'm really looking forward to all you steam guys teaching this outboard guy a thing or two...

Jim and pals,

I will miss you all this year as I will be off up the river on a different boat and unable to join you. Perhaps, next year I will be back on this wonderful excursion. Have a great and safe trip and see you all on the river (or at the Holiday Open House at the Howard Museum)!

~Travis~

We'll be swapping bucketsboards on a 40-ton paddlewheel this week, so, regrettably, I will miss a great trip. Perhaps another time. Have a fun and safe time.

Well, the Twelve Mile Island Caper is history! Missed some regulars...Alan, John, John, Sharon, Shipyard Sam, Steve, Barb, Bill and Travis names only a few! But there WAS a caper and it was well attended and, as usual, great fun! While some of her elders preferred a sedate trip up Harrods Creek in MISSIE, not Leonie! With her and her daddy, Franz, as pax, Leonie made unmistakeable motions to go out to the river; not up the creek again! The trip up to the island with my wife Carol was uneventful in the morning and back down in the afternoon, but Franz will tell you that on taking rides in the late afternoon we got into some fairly "big stuff" below McBrides fleet. It was wake off of bigger cruisers. MISSIE took 'em all in stride with Leonie's squeal of delight cutting throug any language barrier...Leonie speaks German. Well, I was havin' a ball too, and I guess I cut into one a little bit bigger and MISSIE stuck her nose into it. Well, the two up front (Franz and Leonie) got a bit damp! But not Leonie's enthusiasm. I'll let Franz give you his version! The island was and is great, JIM'S Dream looked and ran great, the company was great and the picnic luncheon was scarfed up as if by a plague of locusts. Bruno Krause got to double-end on MISSIE with 'is wife as pax and engineer extroadinarie Keith Baylor got to play in the pilot's seat as well as engineer too. Both got to play the one-note caliope. Leonie was in charge of the bell! Barb Hameister was also a Pax in MISSIE. MISSIE herself behaved well with enuff little foibles to let me know who was boss! Great weekend with Pat Carr on stage on Saturday at the Howard and present with us on Sunday. Thanks to you Jim and all your little and not so little helpers! Cap'n Walnut.

Thanks, Tom, (Captain Walnut) for your posting. We did have a GREAT time ALL weekend long. I'm running on a slow bell today after many days and nights of partying with my river friends! BOY! What fun we have! Let me add my thanks to Jim and Keith for all the planned activities that came off without any noticeable hitches.

Another great time indeed!

Kudos aplenty to Jim for his gracious hospitality! My thanks to Cap'n Walnut for a fine excursion aboard "Missie". And cheers to Carmen and Franz for the very existence of steamboats.org !

Incredible time...and I'm finding it hard not to daydream with the memories of this past weekend.

Deb and I didn't really recover from all the fun until today. What a blast, and meeting so many river rats that we had only conversed with electronically before was a HUGE plus. We wouldn't miss next year's "ramble" for anything. And frankly, anybody that lives in Louisville...your town is wonderful, you are lucky, and yes we're talking about maybe becoming Ken-Tuck people...

Jim, you and your wife are the ultimate hosts. The picnic lunch was delicious, the conversation stimulating. I just hope I didn't put too much of a dent in the Dream's bow overhang with my head. We had a ball...

Keith, nice to talk to you about the midwest in general, Omaha and Offutt in particular.

Kenny, wonderful engineering talk about boilers, soot, soot blowdown and the like. I will never be able to get enough old DQ stories.

Tom, what can I say? Wanna trade Missy for my Whaler? What an incredibly sweet ride she is, and I can still hear the quick, little, hushed "chucka-chucka". Thanks for trusting my piloting skills, wonderful fun, Cap't Walnut. Great sounding 1 note calliope! For those of you that have not had the pleasure, the Ohio from about 3 feet above the surface is a very different and wonderful experience. Talk about a sensory delight...

Jo Ann, have you started the list we talked about? I'm ready... and will be coming next year prepared and eager. Thank you so much, we wouldn't have considered at all coming to Louisville if you hadn't been so gracious. Very nice place you have...See you in September. Deb and I are starting to appreciate that yes indeed, that WAS me and my big mouth on Fox 41 news...

And did anybody mention that a Ford Trimotor kept flying over Jim's Dream? Considering vintage aviation is my third love, I was in heaven. All you guys arranged that just for me, right?

Pat, Pat and Barb, what can I say, you guys are always wonderful company, good laughs, great conversation as expected.

And to Franz, Carmen and Leonie...So nice to finally meet up with the German crew. Let's not make it the last time. Seeing Leonie being Jim's Dream pilot was a memory I'll cherish. Have a safe trip home, see you'all next year.

Wonderful, WONDERFUL time. Thanks all.

Bruno and Debbie Krause

Thanks Bruno. And now I know you're on to your next adventure. Darn the luck! You get to get on our Beloved DELTA QUEEN! Be sure to give her a BIG hug for me! And have a GREAT time!

Cap'n Walnut,

I could have sworn I was here on the AQ when you all set sail on Sunday. Perhaps my spirit was with you all...because I would have loved to have been home and on the river with you all!

~Travis~