By Rick Eichrodt

Greetings fellow outboard lovers! What started out as two guys getting together to just go on ….”the last river cruise”, has turned out to become a two-day event. This year, we had plenty of interest in getting out one more time before the cold weather. The impromptu event started out on Saturday, November 6. We had made arraignments to meet at Jim Hickman’s house to do some test tank sessions in his shop. There were members from different states attending. We had Dan Jones and his fiancée, Cynthia coming down from Michigan. Making the trip from Springfield Illinois was Brian Browning and his son Matt. The rest of the members came from all over Indiana. Tim Irwin, Greensburg, Jay Walls and fiancée Ann McKinley, from Danville, Jim Hickman and Roger and Mick Alford from Anderson, Steve Roskowski from Mooresville, Dale Hume from Martinsville and Kirk Butler from Indianapolis attended the two-day event. Some members shared their houses for the weekend. Tim hosted Brian Browning and Jim Hickman hosted Dan Jones.

On Saturday morning, we met at Jim’s house around 9:00 to begin the day. Brian Browning brought a truck full of motors on racks to test out. Everyone brought something to show or run in Jim’s large test tank located in his warm shop. Dan Jones and Tim Irwin wanted to see if they could get 5 Evinrude Zephyrs to run at the same time, in the same test tank! That is 20 cylinders running to produce about 27 horsepower. Guess what, they did run and we have the pictures to prove it. Tim and Dan did a great job in provided some excitement in getting those motors in running condition. The Zephyr event may have set a record! Tim also ran an Evinrude folding N that he picked up from Tomahawk. Brian ran a nice Lauson 4 stroke, twin cylinder motor. The test tank got a huge workout that morning.

After a great lunch provided by Jim and his wife, Eleanor, the crew took off to Muncie, Indiana to view the model airplane museum. It is the headquarters for the model aircraft club and has a great interactive exhibit displaying everything from rubber band airplanes to remote controlled jet aircraft. We could have spent hours in the museum, but only had an hour to visit. If you are ever in Indiana and are interested in model airplanes, I would make an effort to visit the museum, you will find it worth the trip.

After the visit to the museum, everyone headed down to Steve Roskowski’s house for a pitch in dinner. All the guests sat around Steve’s house and enjoyed the evening’s pitch-in supper. After dinner, we toured Steve’s collection of racing motors. He builds racing boats out in his shop, located behind his house. Steve has a great collection of racing boats and motors and actively races in the “D” and “C” class. Above his shop is the storage area and just about everyone who went upstairs said the same thing……..”WOW”! The evening wrapped up around 9:00 and everyone headed home to get ready for the next days activity.

On Sunday morning, November 7, all the attending members met at the Broad Ripple Park launching ramp along the White River. The meeting time was about 10:00 am and the ramp was a buzz of activity with everyone getting ready to launch. Broad Ripple Park has a nice boat launching ramp located inside the park with plenty of trailer parking. The dock is very small and does not have much room for boat docking. We formulated a plan that once members got their boat in the water, they would just idle around or sit out on the water until everyone was ready. The days activity was to head up the river, about 4 or 5 miles, then stop at a small sandy area, have lunch and head back. Dan Jones and Cynthia operated Jim Hickman’s Lone Star boat, running a Johnson 25 RD. Tim Irwin, with Jim riding along, ran a 1961 Evinrude Fastwin 10 horse. Brian Browning, with his son Matt, ran a twin engine Martin 100 Alumicraft rig. The Alford brothers had a flat bottom Johnboat with a 1960 Johnson 5.5. Jay Walls, with Ann McKinley and her daughter Alex, ran his Star Tank Boat with a Caille Liberty Single. J. J. Walls, along with Ann’s son Nick, ran a Mercury K2. I ran my Smokercraft with a 1952 Johnson QD13 with Kirk Butler riding along, taking pictures. We could have not asked for any better weather as the skies were clear and the temperatures was very comfortable for November. As we road up the river, we encountered the beautiful fall colors along the river. There were a surprising number of boaters on the river that day, taking in the warm sunny weather.

In summation, we could have not had a better time, nobody had to get towed back, it was a sunny day and the food and friends were great. What started out as just two guys getting together for some fun has turned into a much larger event. Such impromptu get together can be a great time to have………”that last river cruise”!

See Ya On The Water.