# 9 Continued
We loaded the battery with the hole, went to Wal-Mart, Bought new fan belts, a radiator cap. & many more "stores" for the boat & crew. I fully expected a trip to the airport to purchase a ticket but there was no mention of jumping ship. Milk for his Cheerios was bought instead.
Of course the little pirate would have to "order" the water pump. To overnight it was another $170.00! How predictable that was!! My bud had to buy a new pair of shoes. Not everything he did was bad. He did good deeds also. In this instance he had saturated his shoes with diesel as he sat one evening in the engine compartment holding his finger over the drain fitting on the water separator.
We had decided to drain the water off 1 night as part of our nightly PM chores. It broke, no ones fault, it just broke. Diesel started dripping into the bilge. He saw it & jumped in & sat there in the dark and mosquitoes while the 3 of us tried to make something that would stand up to the solvent effect of diesel fuel.
After more than a hour we finally concocted a mix of toilet paper, silicon & Permatex gasket goo. Then he sat there while it "set". Our HERO!! We had to throw his shoes & socks away though.
After 2 hot showers & the marina (the one on the boat was a cold one), there was still a faint reek of diesel in close quarters. From then on we did our PMs in the mornings. New shoes, a restaurant meal or two & dry land made him a new man. We all enjoyed the layover. While standing in line for our Big Macks, my wife noticed we were all 4 swaying back & forth, our legs were still on the boat. How funny. 1 more incident that night & then back to the boat.
Our friends decided they wanted a taste of "Memphis @ night" We found a steakhouse downtown a few blocks from the marina. It was so-so food @ exorbitant price, but real atmosphere. The building had been a warehouse for river trade in the steamboat days. As our friends lingered, learning of the history, we stepped out onto the sidewalk.
A scruffy, dirty young man made a move to grab the wife’s purse. I picked up on the intent & shot in between him & the wife. As I did so I thrust my hand into my pocket for my knife. He saw the move & broke off the advance. He left the curb & barely made it across the 4 lanes of traffic to the far side. He was gone into the night. A small taste of" riverfront life." "The joke would have been on him" the wife quipped. "The parts pirate stole all our money this afternoon"
We watched the beautiful horse carriages for awhile & called it a night. We had arrived around noon & wanted to leave early (if possible) the next day. I did want to install the golden water pump while stopped & stationary, I was losing my hearing.
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