Chapter 220: Boat Camping

Editor: nnpdad 22 Oct 2022

Two hours later I was certain we would not see Fort Atkinson on this day. The days were just far too short this time of year. The way I figured it, we would show up at the docks just after breakfast time if we hurried; if we took our time in the morning, it would be a little later. Honestly the weather would be the deciding factor in that decision. We knew we would be staying over that evening and heading back to Rulo the following day.

The steamboat had changed a little during our short time in port. Most noticeable was a small pilot house which had been attached to the front of the cargo house. There wasn’t much to it, but steering was now accomplished with a rudder wheel rather than just a long pole. The story was that Captain Sven was actually giggling like a girl the first time he took the boat out with the new rudder in place. Later I would discover that additional changes had been made both in function and in form.

While touring the small pilot’s nest and chatting with Sven, I learned that the cannibalization of pickups had begun. Most noticeable were the windows of the pilot house because they looked suspiciously liked the rear and side windows of a certain Ford pickup truck. The small couch closely resembled the bench seat from the club cab in Michelle’s truck. I suppose it couldn’t be helped; after all, the vehicles weren’t very useful to us as they sat. I planned on using my truck one last time to move the trailer to its final resting spot; after that, we’d recycle it as well. Without spare parts they were useless to us; the machining to create even the most basic engine component was far beyond our reach.

It would be best to get what use out of them we could and do whatever we could to keep the tractor alive, it was a far more usable tool in any case. I was much happier with my second discovery: the heater core from the Ford had been relocated to the pilot house, making it nice and toasty warm at the flip of a lever. Further exploration showed me that they had simply attached a water reservoir to the top of the boiler and were leaching excess heat from that. Copper pipes were used to move the water and the main radiator from the truck had been placed in the cargo house. A pretty nice hack all things considered.

I also learned that the cargo house had been divided width-wise to provide a semi-secure room in the aft where the mail would be stored. The larger front room had a table and benches for the crew and passengers with hooks for sleeping hammocks. The cooking brazier had been replaced with a small potbelly stove and now had a metal safety box with what looked like truck exhaust pipes for a chimney. I expected to see some missing sheet metal on that Ford when I saw it next.