Tear it up, fix it, repeat: Shovelfest VII Saturday

How does a footpeg leak oil?

I guess that's a boot heel.

Bikes.

The Things' Knuck needs some help, too.

Chris the mayor, took us on the Jeep tour before the boat ride.

This is actually the oldest bank in Illinois, not the one with the big columns.

This is the harbor and the tug boats.

The pilot sits way up there.

Chris makes sure everything is good to go.

Two of these diesel engines make it go.

The engine room from above.

Important warnings.

Mark is impressed.

Renee is ready to go.

This is a side shot of another tug boat for perspective.

Here's the pilot and the control deck.

Rollin' on the river...

The pilot let Trent try the controls and Chris gave instructions. Two throttles keep the RPM's under 1400 because if water goes over the bow you can drive the boat straight to the bottom of the river.

Old Shawneetown from the river. The big bank, the bar, and a few other buildings.

Chris let me drive. Besides the two throttles, there is a set of forward rudder levers, and a set of reverse rudder levers.

It seems wierd compared to handlebars, but it is was fun.

I even got to put it up against a barge. There's brakes so you have throttle forward and backward to make a nice soft stop against the barge.

Luckily, Chris took over the controls right before something broke. He should have known not to let Shovelheaders onto his boat or something would break.

Some roadside repairs were attempted, but Chris had to bring it in with engine steering only and no rudders.

Once we got parked, Chris took us over to look at a tug boat in dry dock. Here's a look at the prop and rudders.

Back to town. You can still hitch a horse on Main Street.

Here's good shot of the big bank. In 1937 the river was at 65 feet and there's a diamond mark about three quarters of the way up one column to show how high that was. That flood pretty much caused Shawneetown to be moved from "Old" Shawneetown to the new location.