By Rick Eichrodt, MOB Correspondent

The time was once again running out. Fall was upon us and Old Man Winter was closing in fast. Each year we talk of running the river again, like last year………”one more cruise”! Well, this year provided the best time so far. It was early November and one could wear short pants and tee shirts. The trees were colorful and had not lost their leaves yet. So the members who live close to the White River in Indianapolis made it to Broad Ripple Park and played with old iron one more time. The members who attended this “run whatcha brung” meet were Tim Irwin, Jim Hickman, Kirk Butler and myself. Between the four of us, we had a total of 7 outboards. Tim bought his trusty Buccaneer 12 again along with a Johnson 5 ½ as a kicker. Jim Hickman had brought his twin Evinrude Fastwin 14’s and along with Jim rode Kirk Butler with Kirk bringing his Elto Pal. I had a 1955 Johnson QD15 clamped on the back of the Aqua Queen with an Elto Pal as a kicker, just in case of trouble. We again started out at the Broad Ripple Park boat ramp, meeting around 11:00am. Each of us had packed a cooler with food and drink. We started up the river after helping each other unloading their respective boats. Every motor must have wanted to go for a ride because each one started on the first few pulls and soon warmed up and settled down to a nice idle. Kirk decided to ride with Jim Hickman this year because he just got back into town the previous night and did not have time to get his boat ready. Plus Jim’s boat had real nice seats with backs on them so Kirk would have a comfortable ride. We headed up the mighty White River with Kirk being cameraman. It was a gorgeous day, sun shining and the warm temperatures allowing for a beautiful outing. From Broad Ripple Park, we headed up river until we could not go any farther. The river gets shallow and most of the river people use the outboards with jet units on them to go farther north. Our travels took us about 3 or 4 miles up river to a bayou area that opened up and had a sandy beach area for our lunch. We stopped, beached our boats, opened our coolers, and stretched our legs. After lunch we started back and opened up our motors to clear out the carbon. We discovered that each of us had some problems with the leaves that were floating on or just underneath the water. Our propellers would collect some of these leaves and almost stop our boats dead in their wakes. Jim Hickman had some trouble getting leaves or debris in his water intake and got an overheated motor. This is the reason we each take two motors, just in case. Well, Jim had twin 14’s and all he did was just fire off the second 14 and away he went. The river was pretty active that day with pontoon boats and bass boats heading all directions. There were a lot of people who wanted to take full advantage of the beautiful weather and have one more outing on the water. We got back to the launch ramp, safely, and helped each other load up the boats. After putting away all the gear and cleaning up the boats, we stood around and reflected on our day on the water. We again, next year, hope visit this river in the fall and welcome anyone who wants to join in…………………………”ONE LAST CRUISE”!