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128. The Pile Up EP16: Buried Steam
128. The Pile Up EP16: Buried Steam
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About this episode
Listener feedback sparks a lively discussion about trains and ships, leading to fascinating stories about buried vehicles. The hosts share a tale of a 1974 Ferrari discovered in a backyard after being stolen and buried for years, revealing a web of insurance fraud. They also recount the history of the Belle of Louisville, a steamboat with a dramatic past, including an attempted sinking. The episode blends humor with historical anecdotes, making for an engaging listen for fans of transportation lore.
Emily gets buried, Rose gives the listeners what they want.
Rose's grandpa buries a Cadillac
Recorded, edited & mixed by Emdognightmare & Queen of the Vans
Production & research Queen of the Vans & Emdognightmare
Find us: Car Krush
Stay updated w/ our newsletter
Hugs, thank you & high fives to Greg Meleney for the killer tunez!
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Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Car
Ferrari 246 GTS
"...it turned out to be a dark green 1974 Ferrari 246 GTS. I'm surprised."
The Ferrari 246 GTS is a famous sports car from the early 1970s. It's known for its sleek design and powerful engine, and many car enthusiasts consider it a classic.
The Ferrari 246 GTS is a classic sports car produced by Ferrari from 1969 to 1974. It features a mid-engine layout and is known for its distinctive design and performance, making it a highly sought-after collector's item.
Car
Seat Alhambra
"...ears earlier. Rosendo Cruz, he was a plumber from Alhambra. He bought the Ferrari new for his wife and he pa..."
The Seat Alhambra is a large family car that can fit many people and their stuff. It has special doors that slide open, making it easier to get in and out. People like to talk about it because it's great for families who need a lot of space.
The Seat Alhambra is a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) that offers spacious seating and versatility for families or groups. Known for its practicality, it features sliding doors for easy access and a flexible interior layout, making it a popular choice for those needing a functional vehicle. Discussions about the Alhambra often focus on its family-friendly design and value for money.
Term
$22,000
"...he bought the Ferrari new for his wife and he paid about $22,000."
$22,000 is the amount of money paid for the car. It gives an idea of how much the car cost when it was bought.
The mention of $22,000 refers to the price paid for the Ferrari, which provides context about the car's value at the time of purchase. This amount can help listeners understand the market positioning of Ferrari vehicles.
Concept
insurance scam
"...it turns out it was an insurance scam. Farmers had hired thieves to steal and destroy the car..."
An insurance scam is when someone tricks an insurance company to get money they don't deserve, like pretending something was stolen or damaged.
An insurance scam involves deceitful practices to obtain money from an insurance company, often by staging accidents or losses.
Brand
Ferrari
"These Ferraris weren't really hot on the market at that point."
Ferrari is a famous car brand from Italy that makes very fast and expensive sports cars. They are known for their bright red color and are often seen in car races.
Ferrari is a renowned Italian sports car manufacturer known for its high-performance vehicles and racing heritage. The brand is synonymous with luxury and speed, often associated with iconic models like the Ferrari 488 and Ferrari F8.
Car
Plymouth Belvedere
"...they had this big celebration and they lowered a two-tone Belvedere with four miles on it into this huge concrete, it was like 12 by 20 bucks."
The Plymouth Belvedere is a car that was made by the Plymouth brand. It was popular in the 1950s and 1960s and is known for its stylish design.
The Plymouth Belvedere was a popular automobile produced by Plymouth from 1951 to 1970. It is known for its classic styling and was often associated with the muscle car era in the 1960s.
Car
Cadillac Eldorado
"It was an Eldo with stacked headlights. So I think it was a 57 Eldo. Oh, wow."
The Cadillac Eldorado is a fancy car that was popular in the 1950s. The 1957 version is known for its unique headlights and is a convertible, meaning the top can be lowered for open-air driving.
The Cadillac Eldorado is a luxury convertible known for its distinctive styling and powerful performance. The 1957 model featured iconic stacked headlights, making it a standout in its era.
Car
Tesla Semi
"...t own an excavating company had a big, they had a semi truck that was a monster truck. It's called King ..."
The Tesla Semi is a big electric truck made by Tesla that helps transport goods. It's important because it runs on electricity instead of diesel, which is better for the environment. People talk about it because it could change how we move things across the country.
The Tesla Semi is an all-electric Class 8 truck designed for freight transport. It represents a significant shift towards sustainable transportation in the trucking industry, offering lower operating costs and reduced emissions compared to traditional diesel trucks. Its advanced technology and performance capabilities make it a topic of interest for discussions about the future of logistics and transportation.
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
"...dad with his 70 Camaro, you know."
The Chevrolet Camaro is a popular sports car that was made in the 1970s. It's known for being fast and powerful, and many people love to collect and restore these cars today.
The Chevrolet Camaro is a classic American muscle car that was first introduced in 1966. The 1970 model is part of the first generation and is known for its powerful engines and sporty design.
Term
RS
"...With his RS."
'RS' means 'Rally Sport' and is a special version of the Camaro that has some extra sporty features. It makes the car look and feel more performance-oriented.
The 'RS' designation stands for 'Rally Sport' and is a trim level for the Chevrolet Camaro that typically includes performance enhancements and sporty styling features.
Term
turbo
"...they've got like turbos on these motors and they're just like strapped to an engine blasting down a waterway."
A turbo is a part that helps an engine produce more power by forcing in extra air. This lets the engine burn more fuel, making it stronger and faster.
A turbo, or turbocharger, is a device that forces more air into the engine's combustion chamber, allowing for more fuel to be burned and thus increasing power output. This technology is commonly used in performance vehicles to enhance engine efficiency and power.
Term
jet boat
"Oh, like the jet boats?"
A jet boat is a kind of boat that moves using a special system that pushes water out the back instead of using a propeller. This helps it go fast and lets it operate in shallow water.
A jet boat is a type of watercraft that uses a jet propulsion system instead of a traditional propeller. This allows for high speeds and maneuverability in shallow waters, making them popular for recreational activities like racing and water sports.
Select text to request an explanation
Hello.
Hello.
It is Wednesday, that's somethingeth.
That's Queen of the Vans.
That's M-Dog Nightmare.
And here we are.
You're listening to the pileup.
The pileup.
Pileup.
Pileup.
The pileup.
Pileup.
Pileup.
Today, we are starting with some listener feedback.
People came to see me in person.
That's right.
They hunted me down.
Face-to-face.
Like a dog.
In the same space.
Hunted me down.
Yeah, face-to-face confrontation.
Eyeball to eyeball.
And they said, I was told, they said, if you're going to talk about trains, I'd rather hear
about ships.
I think they specifically said boats, and they said, what size boats?
They said, any.
And I was like, are you sure?
Have you ever seen a train?
She said, yeah.
So then someone else showed up at the shop, and they said the same thing.
They said, it's nice to hear about steam, but my dad was on a ship in the Navy.
And we got to...
Chit-chan.
Jaw-jacking.
Little jaw-jacking.
Little jaw-jacking.
A lot of different than chit-chan.
Yeah, we were definitely doing some jaw-jacking about steam.
Chit-chat.
I think chit-chat can happen at the water cooler.
It's pretty low level.
You don't dig deep in.
You don't really learn anything.
Not about your life.
It's about TV, about pop culture.
Somebody else's problems.
But jaw-jacking, you could get a little deeper.
Right, okay.
You're making the goal of killing some time, I think, of your jaw-jacking.
Thank you for outlining the differences of those two descriptions of talking.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, I think it was necessary to set the scene.
Do some jaw-jacking.
It was a cool October afternoon.
My dad was on a destroyer in the Navy, which is a gearing class, and Steve's was a later
class, a couple of classes later, so it was like almost 20 years newer than the ship my
dad was on.
What's a class, like a model?
Yeah, like gearing class, they'll build like eight to ten of them the same.
And then a lot of times, whatever the first one is of the class is the name of
the class.
Oh, okay.
Iowa class, aircraft carrier or something like that.
Oh, okay.
All right.
The gearing class destroyer, they'll be like eight or ten of them, and then they have
different names.
So the one my dad was on was named after Butch O'Hare.
He was a World War II pilot that was at Pearl Harbor and jumped in a plane when
the attack happened and shot people down and then continued to go into the fight
and he died on the first time that we tried flying a night mission, which I think was
during Midway, and they just lost him into the night and they assumed that he was
shot and just kept flying until he ran out of gas.
Oh, that was the end of it.
Oh, here, airport's named after the same guy, Butch O'Hare.
Oh.
Yeah.
So that's almost a 200 foot, I think it's 200 foot long ship.
That's a long ship.
Is that a long ship?
It seems really long.
Yeah, it's pretty big, I think.
It's not like a boat that you would tow to your house.
Yeah, dad was damaged control, so he said he was the first off when they got into port
to look for power and steam to connect to.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Little hookups at the off stations.
Yeah, he told me a good story.
He never talked about it.
He only told us like about it twice.
Like one time he texted us all on Christmas Eve and told us the story of him when
they were headed towards Vietnam during that time of the year and the ship listing
like 70 and 80 degrees.
Whoa.
Uh-huh.
That must have been so scary.
It's pretty nice.
It was a well-written story, but I don't...
Did he say he was scared?
No.
Oh.
I don't think that was included.
Okay.
He did say he took up smoking on Night Watch during Vietnam.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
Mm-hmm.
Night Watch is like probably boring.
Yeah.
So that's a ship I know about, but I was going to talk about a couple ships
that I've been on, but you, on the other hand, we're going to share a little bit of a spooky
story.
Mm-hmm.
Not...
I mean, yeah.
Buried treasure stories.
Oh.
Buried treasure.
Really?
Are we stretching the...
Stretching the truth there?
The definition of buried treasure?
Mm-hmm.
Depends on who you talk to.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Depends on who you talk to.
Okay.
Yeah.
I would say for one, no, and maybe for the other, yes.
I've got two.
And then you have a story that's also in the similar vein.
I got a little something to share on the topic.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think you can start us off with the spooky October Halloween story.
Okay.
All right.
Since we don't have a totally spooky show, Emily in the past with Car Crush has done
spooky Halloween episodes if you're a past listener.
So we discussed whether we would do it or not and...
We decided no.
Give it a hazy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because I guess we weren't just keeping it a hotboxing thing.
That's Emily's decision, so...
Yeah.
Anyway, I sure brought that decision down like a hammer.
Yeah.
It's really been...
It's been crushing, you know, the decision.
Picture this.
It's the late 70s.
Groovy.
What is a fun thing for a kid to do outside?
Playing the leaves.
Okay.
Try one more.
The 70s in the fall?
Does this specifically matter what season?
It doesn't matter what season.
Ride a bicycle.
Roller skate?
Roller skating.
Dig a hole.
Dig a hole.
Dig a hole.
And that is exactly what was happening in Los Angeles in 1978 when two kids were digging
a hole and they hit a large solid metal mystery object.
You know, one thing about the hole is that it's only natural enemy is the pile.
Is it the pile up?
I learned that at the Pile Museum.
Hmm.
But where's the hole museum?
They don't have one.
It's still on the hook, yeah.
At first it seemed like it was just another buried pipe or it was junk, you know, like
what you would normally find in a backyard.
When they couldn't figure out, because it was so big, they called the cops.
They just clanked no matter where they shoveled.
They called the cops for some reason.
I don't know why the cops were doing it this way.
I'm hoping this is a boiler from a steam engine.
They called the cops.
And the cops brought some like...
Magnets.
They brought some like little skid steers and dug it up and it turned out to be a dark green
1974 Ferrari 246 GTS.
I'm surprised.
Are you shocked?
I'm shocked.
I'm shocked.
I mean, we're talking about LA and that they're like, oh, yeah, you're hitting metal.
Like I would expect them to be like, why are you digging down there anyway?
None of your business.
Instead they're like...
It was the 70s.
Instead they're like, yeah, let's bring in some heavy equipment.
What the heck?
Right.
I'm very surprised.
This is on the taxpayer dollar.
I'm pretty surprised.
I think maybe they thought there was a body in it.
Okay.
Maybe.
Okay.
I'm not sure.
It didn't really go into that.
Where was this happening?
This is happening in LA.
Like in a backyard?
In somebody's yard.
It is in a yard?
Yeah, it's in somebody's yard.
Okay.
Yeah.
The car had been reported stolen four years earlier.
So it must have been a new family that moved into this because the family wasn't...
Bearing a car in your backyard with nobody noticing.
That's interesting.
Bearing a Ferrari.
So it had been stolen four years earlier.
Rosendo Cruz, he was a plumber from Alhambra.
He bought the Ferrari new for his wife and he paid about $22,000.
It had Campanillo wheels and Daytona seats.
Two months later, on December 7th, the couple went out to eat and he didn't trust the valet
to park it.
He parked it on the street and when they came out after dinner, the car was gone.
Farmers and shirts paid the claim.
He got the money.
When the car was found in 78, it was wrapped in plastic tarps, but the thieves had left
the windows cracked.
So you know...
The thieves.
Yeah, the thieves had left the windows cracked.
So water and dirt seeped in, but there was a drought, so the rust wasn't too bad because
as always is in LA, there was a drought.
This is stupid.
This poor Ferrari.
It was assumed that there was a dry suing pool and they ramped the car in, they wrapped
it and then they filled the pool.
Farmers repossessed the car to sell it and it turns out it was an insurance scam.
Farmers had hired thieves to steal and destroy the car, but instead they buried it because
maybe they couldn't cut it up.
Who knows?
Anyway, then businessman Brad Howard bought it and Giuseppe Campagnolo restored it and he
shows it.
He takes it around and shows it and the vandy plate says, dug up.
This is like when Moe Sislak has Homer steal his car to do an insurance job so that
it'll get hit by a train.
Now Moe is on a cruise for the policeman's ball.
He's with the policeman?
Yeah, he's with the police on this cruise and then Homer botches it and Homer rolls out
of the car and then the way that he rolls back into the car and then-
Of course he does.
Yeah.
Earlier in the episode, when they get on the boat, Moe is telling Chief Wiggum,
he's like, I just wanted you to see what a good parking job I did there.
It's the one with the daisy on the hood.
It's got like a rubber daisy on the hood.
Oh man.
So then it's rolling downhill and Chief Wiggum's like, Moe, isn't that your car with a rubber
daisy on the hood there?
And he's like, oh my God.
So Homer goes to jail for it.
Of course he does.
And Moe doesn't want to bail him out because he was getting it stolen so he could have
more money to keep spoiling his girlfriend.
Moe had a girlfriend.
Yeah.
That's great.
I think she couldn't smell and so she didn't mind Moe.
Oh, well, he didn't start showering when she had a-
I guess the Moe lore is that Moe just smells bad.
Oh, okay.
I didn't know that, but I'm not a Simpson, not like you are, so I wouldn't know.
I had some questions about this.
Okay.
How does that scam make money?
Well the car disappeared.
Yeah, but he bought it for $22,000.
He had it for four months.
Doesn't a car go down in value as soon as you take it off the lot?
He bought it brand new.
So how much money, you think they paid him $22,000?
Did he buy the car in cash specifically?
Was it paid off?
If it wasn't paid off, they would have given part of the money to the people who held the
loan for the car.
It seems like you would lose money in this situation.
I think that you're stumbling onto the core building block of our society, which is that
crime doesn't pay.
This is true.
This is definitely true.
Is there any way that insurance claim could have made money on it in four months?
This is the same hole that we had in that book I read, in the plot in that where he steals
the Cadillac and is doing an insurance job with the car.
How is that getting any money?
Not fade away.
Yeah.
Because we were doing the value of the car and then what do you supposedly get paid
in the story?
Yeah.
Didn't really make any sense.
Exactly.
You were like, what?
Why don't they pay it more than the car's worth?
Yeah.
Also, no insurance companies do that today.
They've given him like $5,000.
That's how he sets the story up that he goes on this trip and he's got $2,500 in his pocket.
What?
That car was barely $5,000 to begin with.
So where is his take $5,000?
Maybe things were different in the 70s.
Maybe we just don't get a core part of this.
Why didn't this guy just sell it?
If he's dumb enough to commit the crime, that's the part of the problem.
These Ferraris weren't really hot on the market at that point.
And my other question was, do you think that the thieves used heavy equipment or shovels
to do this job?
Shovels.
Wow.
And where did they get the dirt?
Okay.
If it was a swimming pool, now this is, I want to break the swimming pool theory
right wide open.
Because if it was a swimming pool, where'd they get the fucking dirt?
Did they call in fill dirt?
You know where my grandparents lived, there was a sign that said dump fill dirt here and
this guy like built up his property by, he lived on a hillside and he got people to fill
in his hillside.
Whoa.
You have to pack that down too, don't you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
From your grandparents' fill dirt?
No.
It was just on the way to the farm.
We passed it all the time.
The guy just over the years just- Oh, he put a thing like free dump fill dirt here.
And slowly just got more and more property.
Do you think that's what the thieves did then?
I do wonder, because if it were like somewhere like San Bernardino, I could definitely see
like putting a sign in your driveway that says like dump filled dirt here.
And then also, what if it was, do you think it was an abandoned house at the time, or
do you think one of the thieves lived in the house?
See, that's a great question, because it's like how-
Like, nobody, how, you can't just sneak that in when you're bow setting someone's
house.
That's what I'm saying.
Nobody said anything?
No.
That's apparently supposedly, I mean, that's what, you know-
Well, that's just what I mean.
Like the neighbors weren't like, yeah, there's something weird going on back there.
This guy's burying a car in this pool.
Like I just don't- Yeah.
Well, there was photos of it and stuff.
It really did happen.
Yeah, that's the part that's- I mean, this wasn't, this was kind of like one
of those AI videos, but there was like photos and documentation of it.
The stupidity is pretty extreme.
Yeah.
It's really dumb.
Yeah.
A poor car.
Yeah.
It's not a good home.
I guess.
I don't really care.
It's kind of just like a rich person's toy.
Yeah.
So I'm not like- Still like a, it's a really pretty car.
It's slick.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's fine.
I don't know.
I'm not going to call this guy rich, but you know, it's a crime life of the
rich and famous.
All right, well, on that note, let's see what you think about this next one.
Oh.
The car of 57 and Tulsa is celebrating the 50th year of statehood.
Wow.
Big milestone.
Yep.
It's 1957.
Yeah.
So it became a state in 47.
No.
Sorry.
What?
My face, everyone, is just blank.
It's just- I'm just beside myself at the mathematics at play.
Okay.
Listen, I tested into math 60 in college, so- It wasn't with that question.
Watch out.
No, math 60 is the lowest math you can test into.
So I'm really good at math.
They had this big celebration and they lowered a two-tone Belvedere with four
miles on it into this huge concrete, it was like 12 by 20 bucks.
With how many miles on it?
Four.
Four miles.
It was brand new.
Yeah, brand new two-tone Belvedere.
And it was into a 12 by 20 concrete box that was said to be bombproof.
It was packed with like period treasures, so it was like a little like time capsule.
There was a sealed seal capsule that had a 48-star flag in it and a $100 savings account.
I didn't say savings bond, it said savings account.
So I don't know why they didn't do a bond.
And then it had a case of Schlitz beer, too.
Probably there's probably- I'm sure there's other stuff.
There was like gas and there was motor oil, I don't know why you would put gas because
gas isn't going to last for 50 years, but yeah, that's when they became a state,
huh?
Wow.
It's a long go.
Yeah.
It's really not.
Yeah.
Well, our country's not that old.
Still not too great in education there.
Wait, what?
Oklahoma is one of the lowest rated states in education.
Oh, that's too bad.
I know.
Yeah.
Well, I'm one of the lowest rated students of math.
I like-
I maybe I should move to Tulsa.
I like Oklahoma City.
I like the Route 66 attractions there.
And I do like- I have some friends in Tulsa that I've enjoyed visiting through
there.
Yeah, I've driven through Oklahoma.
I've not.
I think we stopped at a racetrack or something.
They've got some good Route 66 stuff.
They've got like the Blue Whale in Bartlesville.
And then they've got the Round Barn on 66.
A Round Barn.
Yeah.
They've got the Round Barn.
What do they do with the Round Barn?
Which is right by Pop Soda Shop.
I don't know.
I never go to the Round Barn.
I just look at it.
Oh, okay.
It's round.
Right.
Yeah.
That's what it says in the name.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's highly accurate.
All right.
So go on with your time capsule.
Oh yeah.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
My mind is blown by this.
You have to live and survive to win.
Is that what this is?
You have to live for 50 years.
Is there any fine print that says you're next of kin?
Come here.
Well, here's the way we get into it.
In 2007-
Somebody's like, my car is ruined.
On June of 14th and 15th in 2007, Vault was cracked open and it was a disaster.
Oh, no.
It was a disaster.
Oh, no.
It had been leaking for decades and there was like 2,000 gallons of water in it.
2,000 gallons.
And it had drowned the Belvedere.
The engine was filled with silt.
Well, you still win.
You've got to haul it off.
Well, here we go.
All right.
The city's like toe tapping and they're like, get your car out of here.
The official winner, Raymond Humbertson, had died in 1979.
Oh, my God.
So the prize was passed on to his family.
They got the ruined car.
Okay.
Along with the savings account, which is now worth $667.
Wow.
That's a lot of money.
That's a lot of money.
Along with the savings account, which is now worth $667.
Wow.
That thing really paid out.
In 50 years, it went up like a little over $100 every year.
Oklahoma jackpot arrested out Belvedere in $667.
This is like a 50-50 raffle at a van event.
And this poor car.
Just imagine a car sitting in rain for 50 years.
What did they do with that?
Well, they sent the Belvedere to Ultra One in New Jersey for like a careful cleanup before
they placed it on display at the historic auto attractions in Roscoe, Illinois.
The questions I have is, did the family have to pay for the shipping and cleanup?
Like there's a photo of the family holding the savings account and holding a photo of
the car.
And they're just in dismay.
No, they're smiling.
That's cool.
That's the photo of the car all fucked up.
That's cool.
Yeah.
I mean, I know I'm shitting on it, but it's actually, it's pretty cool.
I mean, I would still take the car.
I'd stare at it for at least a week.
Yeah, but do you have to pay to get it towed?
Like how do they drop it off?
And then the neighbors are going to complain that you have some rusted rotten car in
your yard?
Depends on what neighborhood you're in.
The real question though is what happened to that case of Schlitz?
I think it just became groundwater.
Do you think that aluminum would, aluminum tin can?
Not tin.
That's a different metal, huh?
They could have been tin.
Well, whatever.
Your cans used to rust in the gutter.
Oh, okay.
All right.
Well, yeah, the Schlitz has probably gone.
Probably back into ore.
Yeah.
I just think of like they get a call in 2007.
Hey, what was the guy's name?
Raymond.
Raymond won the car.
Hi, Raymond.
Come on down to collect your case of Schlitz.
We got a little bit of news though.
It's been sitting in water for 50 years.
I love that King of the Hill where Hank's like,
but then we'll have to go to Oklahoma.
Oh, yeah.
He's like, Oklahoma.
Yeah, that's how he says it.
He's going to get that beavis roll in there.
Those are my two stories.
Okay.
Guess what?
I, what?
That's what?
Monkey butt.
Chicken butt.
My grandfather buried a lady in her Cadillac.
What?
That's right.
What?
What?
What?
What?
1989.
In 1989?
Yeah.
What model was it?
It was an Eldo with stacked headlights.
So I think it was a 57 Eldo.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
So it was a big convertible.
Big daddy.
Oh, big daddy.
Yeah.
Big daddy square hood.
Yeah.
A white interior?
Or was it?
I don't know.
I think it was black interior.
Oh, okay.
In the pictures you show me it looked like.
So, yeah.
So the way that we found out about this as kids, I was in my 20s.
But my grandfather passed away.
And my grandfather had made burial vaults and septic tanks.
And he had a company that had belonged to grandma's father.
And he sold it to grandpa in 54.
It was like 50 grand in the hole in 54.
And grandpa took it over and took some loans.
And the individual mausoleum was the name of the company.
And so when grandpa died, there were these photos of a swimming pool like hole at a cemetery.
And I was like, dad, what is with this swimming pool that it looks like you all dug at a cemetery?
And he's like, oh, we buried this woman with her car.
And I was like, what now?
And he's like, she wanted to be buried with her car.
He's like, so is a convertible.
We put the top down.
He's like, we laid the front seat down.
And then we just put the casket over the front seat.
Wow.
And I was like, what?
And he's like, yeah.
And sure enough, I looked this up and there are some articles that mention grandpa in it.
But yeah, it's at Riverview Cemetery in Aurora, Indiana.
And it was Aurora Shuck.
And she was from Cuba.
So her maiden name was Rules.
Aurora C. Ruelz.
R-U-L-Z.
Is there much known about her?
The Shucks had a store in Aurora.
And they would always at the intersection that their store was as a department store.
And they would have these very cool Christmas displays in the front of the store.
And then they would have a, the city would have a Christmas tree in the corner there at the Shucks intersection.
So it was always a big Christmas destination to go down and look in the window of Shucks and see the displays and stuff.
And their store is super cool.
It's still there as far as I know.
And there's always a big Christmas tree.
I don't know if they donate the Christmas tree.
I kind of think they do, but it's a very nice display.
It was a cool place.
Like when we were kids we'd go up there in October for Farmers Fair and watch the trains do the parade.
Like a train parade through town.
And like our neighbors would, our neighbors that own an excavating company had a big,
they had a semi truck that was a monster truck.
It's called King of the Road.
I'm already talking about that.
When I was a kid in elementary school, I'd check out a book and it was in this monster truck book.
And I was like, I know this truck in real life, you know?
Yeah.
So anyway, that was, yeah, Grandpa buried this lady in her 57 Eldo.
And he never said a word about it.
Like it was just like every day, run of the mill.
I mean, Grandpa.
Grandpa just said so little.
He was born a year after Jean.
Jean was born in 27 and Grandpa was born in 28.
And they were both men of very few words.
Silent generation, I believe is what they call them.
If you made a mad, then you'd get a speech.
A famous speech from Grandpa to dad and his brother was,
I've never had a speeding ticket in my life.
I don't know why you boys need to have a whole book of them.
They had a whole book of them, huh?
Apparently.
Apparently, yes.
What if it was hardback or paperback?
I mean, dad with his 70 Camaro, you know.
Yeah.
With his RS.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He had some tickets.
Yep.
But anyway, Grandpa didn't say a whole lot.
I just don't think he was the kind of guy that was going to be like,
Hey kids,
when I hear a story about me burying a car,
like we would have loved that story.
But no, he was not here to tell it.
He was not going to.
He told me some stories that I loved at the time.
I wish I had gone to greater lengths to write them down
and so I would have more details of them.
Because like his father was like the chief of police in Aurora.
And he told me a story about like him busting up a card game.
And I remember him laughing a lot about it.
Like as you get older, like because I was like,
that's not a funny story.
Like he ruined somebody's life and took their ass to jail.
Like, but once you get old, I think it's just all you can do is laugh.
Yeah.
Because he was talking about they had a brand new ice box and Aurora flooded
and like up to the second floor of the house.
So they brought a boat around and they were trying to get the ice box,
the brand new ice box.
They carried it upstairs and we're trying to get it into the boat
and they missed and it just went to the bottom of the street,
which was the bottom of the Ohio at that moment.
He laughed quite a bit about that because again, what are you going to do?
You know, that was a long time ago.
Yeah.
But yeah, you know, so anyway.
Yeah.
So we looked through some of the photos on the website about Barry
and the Cadillac and my dad is the one in the photo.
Yeah.
It makes sense.
I mean, he did work for grandpa for a little bit.
Yeah.
It's crazy though.
Yeah.
And Lauren and I had talked about this because when we were doing
stories, this was one of the stories we thought about doing.
It's a small world because the guy that I built the eight door van
for, the Hort and who I worked for, you know, at the
screen printing shop when I was a teenager, dad and I had put
in the septic tank at his aunt and uncle's geodesic dome house
in a city near there outside of Aurora.
So like I did that when I was a kid and like Hort went to the
same high school as my mom, but 20 years after.
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
And then dad and I put in the septic tank.
I remember grandpa like calling there were trucks in the phone
or phones in the truck.
I mean, and grandpa called dad and yelled at him to keep the
truck in the low gear.
Dad's a hot router.
So he's like, you know, always driving like Steve McQueen.
I guess grandpa had to call and yell at him.
All right.
Michael.
That's what you'd say.
That's all I can report to you.
But anyway, the photos are cool.
You can look them up online.
Yeah.
You should send me that link and I'll put the link in
the comments.
Yeah.
And you know, you'll see, see my dad with a big, big hat
poofed up on top of his head.
He's the guy with the hat on top of his head in a mustache.
I mean, grandpa wore the hat just like that, but a little
bit better and like very early Kyler like hat is just
gently sitting on top of your head.
Grandpa was like the king of that.
Like it looked like the wind was going to like.
Just taking it at a moment.
Yeah.
I mean, it just looked like he's very gently buttoned
the hat, set it on his head and that, you know.
Oh, so daintily just resting.
Yeah.
It is.
It was pretty daintily resting on your dad.
Oh, yeah.
And he was bent over.
I'm surprised it didn't fall off.
Yeah.
They figured it out somehow.
I don't know.
Yeah.
You have to side part your hair in a Andy Griffith
style and then just gently.
So I did it.
Grandpa definitely comb his hair a lot.
Well, those men of that age also comb their hair.
Oh, yeah.
Carry a comb.
They have a comb.
Yeah.
It's traditional to have a comb.
Side part, you know, flip it over.
Yeah.
Gotta stay looking sharp.
Yeah.
Gotta stay looking sharp.
Yeah.
Go down to the Bob Evans for breakfast.
Women at the Bob Evans sent flowers when he died.
Oh, that's really sweet.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's really sweet.
Grandpa sounds like a rad dude.
Yeah.
He was cool.
Like I said, he only said about three or four things.
Okay.
Well, then he stayed rad.
That's the thing.
If you don't talk that much, nobody knows
if you're an asshole.
They always had Snickers.
Grandpa was the brightest voice in the room.
He owned the house.
Okay.
He owned the house.
Everything came from him there.
Yeah.
He was the brightest voice in the room next to grandma.
Either or would set things straight when necessary.
That's the way it went.
Yeah.
Grandpa, I've buried Cadillac.
It's neat.
It's a neat thing.
I mean, he was a smart guy.
He made all the booms for his boom trucks.
And then he got a cab chassis.
And then a stick weld the bed.
And dad talked about him having a back brace.
And then grandpa would be stick welding the bed.
And the slag would be going into the back brace and burning him.
Oh.
Your dad had a back brace or your grandpa?
Grandpa did.
Oh.
Dad was a kid.
He would hand grandpa the electrodes, the sticks for the stick welding.
And grandpa would be welding these beds on his trucks and getting the slag down
in this plastic back brace that he was wearing.
Ouch.
Ooh.
Plastic melting on a...
Ooh.
Ouch.
Grandpa sounds also tough.
But yeah, he would make all the booms, you know, to...
What the boom would be was like a cable system.
So they would forklift the septic tank onto the back of the truck.
And then they would use the boom system to move the septic tanks or the burial vaults,
whatever they were hauling, as close to the cab of the truck as possible.
So they could haul like three at a time.
And the boom system would then let them take them off and also tram them down the bed.
Oh, okay.
Closer to the end, you know.
Okay.
Yeah.
And he just built all that himself.
Big U shapes.
And then I guess he just stick welded it all.
And then...
Okay.
Yeah, he had a, you know, a winch system that would allow him to lower it down
to the ground.
He was a fabricator for sure.
Smart.
Smart.
Yeah.
Kind of neat.
Yeah.
Love it.
I'm leaving that in the past and to fulfill the request so immediately for ship discussion.
When you talk, we listen to people.
Some people wanted to hear about ships because they were like,
I don't want to hear about trains.
Yeah.
And we know that Gina would like to hear about ships.
I'm sure.
Yeah.
I mean, if you...
She loves ships.
Yeah.
If you haven't got the vibe yet, this is like a transportation podcast.
But we really just talk about stuff we like.
I mean, we haven't really talked about movies or records that much,
but we did talk about books.
We talked about some books.
I mean, it's kind of an open game, but it's mostly transportation focused.
So here we are.
We've arrived at ships.
Who knew?
I knew.
I knew the state would come.
Should we shout out to who gave us the...
Gina wanted to hear about ships, not trains.
Yeah.
And Steve.
Yeah, yeah.
Thanks, Steve and Gina.
Yeah, Steve.
For telling us what's what.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, we...
Thanks, everybody.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks for feedback, et cetera.
And people that write in on social media.
I feel like we're pretty good about sharing that with you.
We're not like hiding it from everybody.
Agreed.
But I wanted to talk about a couple of ships I've been on,
so that I could speak about them easily.
Now, Steve talked to me about a Liberty ship.
Liberty ships are exceptional.
And I do know about them in the sense that they're in the
American welding society's welding metallurgy book,
because they were a part of welding's history.
And what's important about the Liberty ship,
I think a huge part of it, is that Kaiser,
like Henry J. of Kaiser Automobiles,
he wasn't building boats.
I think Kaiser was into buildings
and had built a high rise that people were like,
you can't do that.
And he did it.
And I forget which high rise it is.
But Kaiser was like, I'm going to build boats.
America needs boats.
We can totally do this.
And he hooked up with some people and he did it.
And they did the first welded hull ships.
But they also broke in half.
That's not good.
Out in the frigid.
Out in the frigid temps.
Oh, no.
Did people die?
Yes, because there was too much sulfur in the metals
at that time.
A guy from the American Welding Society told me
that it was also from cold slagging,
where he said that the gaps weren't right
and they would just take a bunch of old welding rods
and jam them in the gaps and then weld over them.
Oh, that doesn't sound like a way that you should do it.
Yeah, a real AWS member told me that.
They broke in half.
But in the AWS welding metallurgy book,
it's found by a female scientist.
And the deal is there was too much sulfur
in the mix of the metal.
You want sulfur because it helps when rolling a shape.
You know, when you're rolling it out of an ingot
into plate or bar, strap seal.
Sure.
All those words make sense to me.
Yeah.
I know exactly what you're talking about.
Whatever Play-Doh shape you're making out of hot metal.
White hot metal.
Okay.
What's a Play-Doh shape?
You know, like you squeeze Play-Doh through like a star shape.
Oh, Play-Doh.
I thought you meant Play-Doh as in the Greek philosopher.
I don't think he centered the chat.
I went PLATO.
Yeah, I don't think he centered the chat.
You know, I mean, they're rolling, you know, white hot metal
and the sulfur helps make shapes.
And apparently you just can't put too much
or it'll crack in frigid temperatures.
Okay.
And they did.
Now, that's not to say that everybody that was on a liberty ship
that broke died.
Now, the other thing taking out the liberty ship was U-boats.
And then we went through a lot of them.
So they were like, they were like, you know,
a, I guess, craft before form, you know, kind of thing.
They were just, they just fired them out.
And they were like, keep them going.
The U-boats are going to keep destroying them.
And so they were to help the Allied merchant marine.
And anyway, it was a big deal.
And Kaiser did succeed.
So the liberty ship, Steve used to go when he was a kid.
He used to go to San Francisco and they would fire up
the triple expansion system on the Jeremiah O'Brien.
But here's another thing about it.
It was used as the engine in the shots for Titanic.
Oh, wow.
He was like, he said they would go down for four catwalks
and see the engine run.
This big dimension.
Dang.
But that's the engine.
Yeah, that's the engine they used in Titanic, the movie.
That's really cool.
Yeah, it's neat.
And it did.
It was in port here in Portland at some point.
Oh, during the night.
Like on display.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, that's cool.
But I forget when that was.
Yeah.
But anyway, it's pretty neat.
And then Steve says, dad was on a fast frigate.
So.
On a what?
On a fast frigate.
Oh, that's a thing.
That's a couple words together.
That's a frigate.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't remember.
That's a very funny thing to say.
My dad was on a destroyer.
Well, yeah, that sounds like a war machine,
but a fast frigate.
And I don't remember what size frigate is.
It's on either side of destroyer,
but I don't remember.
A fast frigate sounds like a water bug.
I guess it is a ship.
I can go with that.
I just think of the level on in 64 007 is called frigate.
So I think it's more of an English term.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What does it mean?
What does frigate mean?
I don't know.
Okay.
I'm not going to get my phone out to pull out.
Don't get your phone out.
I don't even want you to.
Okay.
If anybody knows what frigate means, just at car crush.
So I wanted to mention that because that's sort of.
Something Steve and I talked about.
Liberty ships are pretty amazing.
And that's one of the very few left.
There's not many.
Most of them are on the bottom of the ocean.
And those are because they split in half.
Yep.
And the U-boats took them out too.
I mean, they were cranking them out, you know, record pace,
but I don't remember.
Steve mentioned how many they were cranking out at a time,
but it was fast.
And then Ford built some of them.
Ford couldn't get the pace down.
Ford did a little bit.
They biffed it.
Oh.
And I think nobody cared that they biffed it.
No harm, no foul.
I think what they told them.
Oh, that's cool.
They exactly told them no harm, no foul.
Yep.
It's crazy that they talked like that back then.
Yeah.
Cause all the movies would have you say that they didn't,
but you know.
Yeah.
Who knows?
I don't know.
I can't speak to your sources.
Oh, okay.
So a ship that I've been on,
a World War II ship that I've been on is the LST325,
which stands for landing ship tank.
Okay.
Or long slow target, as crew members would call them.
Oh no.
That doesn't sound good.
These were the ships that burst onto the beaches at Normandy
and bust their front gates open and soldiers and equipment.
Oh, and all the tanks came out.
Yeah.
And ducks.
Yeah.
Stuff like that.
Okay.
Damn.
That's a cool ship.
Yeah.
They have one.
They're iconic.
Yeah.
The LST325 is,
it's a ship that's on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.
And they,
it lives in Evansville,
typically on the Ohio.
And they'll,
Oh, would they be using it for now?
They sail it around as a museum ship.
Oh, okay.
I've been on it three times.
I've been on it in Louisville.
I've been on it in Cincinnati.
And I think I've been on it in Pittsburgh.
Okay.
Now can you say sailing when it's not a sailboat?
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Yeah.
I believe they sail the seas with a,
with an engine also.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
Just making sure.
It's like, you know,
you can go trucking in a van.
Okay.
Keep on trucking,
but you're in a van.
I think they're bending the same transportation rules.
Okay.
All right.
Got it.
In the book.
Okay.
Enormous ship.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
How many tanks would they fit in there?
I think two.
That's it.
And then a hundred enlisted.
I would think more than two tanks.
I would think it'd be like five or something.
Just two.
I think when I looked it up,
it said two tanks and a hundred enlisted.
They have during World War II.
How many LSTs?
Yeah.
A lot.
Okay.
And they also suffered the same fate of the Liberty ships.
They've busted in half.
Long slow, long slow target.
They're just huge.
I'm going to look up how long they are.
Okay.
It's from 1942, the remaining LST 325.
It was laid down in 42, launched in 42.
So it was laid down in August of 42 and launched in October of 42.
So they built it in three months.
Wow.
Like it launched the 27th of October.
God, I wonder how many people they had working on that time.
I know.
That's exactly what I thought.
Like you think like a hundred people at a time?
Yeah.
It's hard to imagine.
And then eventually we gave it to Greece in 64.
Because that's what happened to the destroyer that Dad was on.
We sold it to Spain.
And the Spanish liked American cars.
And they asked my dad to help them buy a car and take it home.
He bought them an old automobile.
Oh, that's so cool.
They strapped it to the deck of the destroyer and took it to Spain.
So it's 327 feet and nine inches.
Wow.
So how many tanks could it fit in it?
Okay.
So let's see.
It says boats and landing craft carried two LCVPs.
And those are like these weird kind of boat things based on boats made for
operating in swamps and marshes.
So apparently it carried two of those.
It says boats and landing craft carried two LCVPs.
And then, yeah, it says a compliment, seven officers and 104 enlisted.
Yeah.
Okay.
So here's a shot of it at 2006 at the Tall Stacks Festival in Cincinnati.
We used to go to Tall Stacks.
So, which is going to lead me to my next boat.
But LST 325, 327 foot long boat.
I've walked it.
Yeah.
It's huge.
It's an enormous boat.
And to be in those halls and just to be, I mean, on a ship, you're
just constantly with the equipment.
Yeah.
All the pipes and the conduit and just like everything is near your
head all the time, all the steam.
Yeah.
Submariners talk about that quite a bit.
The claustrophobia and just like the heat that builds up in the
bodies and how much they have to work on their fresh air and stuff.
Yeah.
You know, the circulating air.
Right.
Yeah.
Because there's a lot of pathways and rooms and stuff down in the
hole.
And it's, you know, it's kind of sad to be on the 325 and think
about what happened.
They open those doors and you just go to your death.
Yeah.
It's really sad.
And the doors are huge.
The ship's huge.
And to think about how big those are hitting the beach and just
cracking open and just your job is to run out and raise hell.
Yeah.
And it's really sad.
Yeah.
It's quite a memorial.
Like I said, I've been on it three times.
I mean, when I, when it was there in Pittsburgh, I knew
exactly what it was.
And I was like, Hey, you know, like if we can go down there,
I want to go down there and tour the ship again.
Yeah.
That's always cool.
So I love that one.
I have, you know, I've got postcards of it and stuff from
the times I visited it.
Then what I wanted to talk about was the bell of Louisville,
which is a steamboat in Louisville where I'm originally
from.
And, you know, for a while, somebody had tried to sink it.
And so we would, I would, I used to ride my bike.
More than once?
No, but it took a long time for them to get it back
above water.
Okay.
But so somebody tried to sink it just one time though.
Yeah.
Okay.
It was a guy that had like worked on the boat and he was
like in his thirties.
He maintains his innocence over the matter.
Oh, but he was convicted.
Did he go to jail?
Yeah.
He was convicted and he was sentenced to 30 months.
What was he convicted of?
A sabotage.
Boat sabotage?
I guess.
Yeah.
Ultimately sabotage.
I didn't, I, there was so much to watch about it.
I've ridden it, but it's been since, I think
middle school.
Yeah.
When I was on it and it was cool.
I would rather, I'd like to go now.
Yeah.
I mean it was slow paced for sure.
And it was like, you know, it was a thing with kids where
like they made us dress up and it's kind of like a
dance here.
I'll just like sitting around like, okay, what do we do
now?
Like on this wooden ship?
What do we do?
There's nothing really for kids to do.
Kids aren't the kind of people that are like, I want
to stay at the river.
But you should.
But I did enjoy it.
But it's only like $35 to go ride now.
So like they even have a friend's giving thing on
the Bella Louisville and it's like $65 for dinner.
Oh, that's cool.
And there's a Krampus ride coming up.
So this guy had opened this water valve that was
for ditching like drinking water and it sank the
ship and a security guard noticed that they were
taking on water.
Did he do it on purpose?
Yep.
You think?
Or okay, excellent.
So there's no video footage of him doing it.
There's no eyewitness.
Okay.
But the jury is there was an interview with the
jury and the jury foreman was just like the
evidence.
It was pretty conclusive.
This guy did it.
We didn't need to think anything about it.
He's guilty.
Whoa.
And the guy like, the guy looks like a smug asshole
in the videos.
I wonder how big was the hole that he opened?
It was, you know, it was a valve.
Yeah, it was a valve for ditching drinking water,
I guess.
So it could have been kind of big?
Who knows?
But either way, if it's a hole and it's
something that's buoyant and it has access to
you know, somewhere to fill a hole that's
vented, then it's just going to fill it.
And then security guard noticed?
Security guard and overnight guard noticed that
it was taking on water.
And what happened is it fell down about 10 feet
to the shelf at the right of the bank.
It was at risk that the bank it was on,
which I didn't realize the river was so shallow
right there because you just walk right up to
the river there.
I mean, it's just like a sidewalk.
A little further down, it's a ramp and other
paddle boats have pulled up to the ramp
when it was still set up that way.
It's different now.
They've changed the way that it's done.
I don't think it's as easy to use it as
a boat ramp now.
But it might be.
Anyway, it fell on the shelf and they had to
bring a tugboat over and they like put the
tugboat up against it to keep it from
sliding.
It would have been 30 feet underwater if it
fell down even further.
And then they're like, I don't know how we
would get it back at that point because
if they had tried to lift it, it would
have broken the boat.
And so they're just trying to keep it
from like, so it took on 10 feet of
water and had a list.
And it was risking sliding even further
and it would have just been buried right
there at the shore.
So wait, how did they get it out?
How did they end up getting it out?
They drained the fuel tank.
And as they drained the fuel tank for a
week.
Oh, just into the water?
They had to call the Coast Guard to
drain the fuel tank.
No, they didn't.
Oh, okay.
They had to evacuate the fuel tank
and then they ran pumps and they
kept just like pumping water out of
the ship any way they could.
And eventually they slowly brought the
ship up and up and up and it never
slipped off that shelf.
And then they towed it down to Jeff
Boat, which is just down the way a
little bit.
Just past the Kennedy Bridge a little
bit and they repaired it down there.
Wow.
So it got, it's nice.
And apparently when it was inspected
by the Coast Guard again recently, they
were like, this ship's obviously been
loved its whole life.
When did, I wonder how they like
first found out that they thought
that guy did it?
It was a little later.
They, it was, I think it was when
it was after they got it back above
water and then they were doing an
investigation into it and then they
realized that somebody had opened that
valve.
And then they were, I don't know
what, I could have read deeper to
learn more about, but I was like,
kind of didn't want to give time to
this guy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because I remember it.
I mean, we rode our bikes down
there and looked at it underwater
and it was pretty sad.
Yeah.
It was just, as a kid you're
just like kind of like, why can't
they lift it?
You know, you don't get it.
Yeah.
I do remember like being like,
why don't they just lift it?
I don't understand.
I completely get it.
Like, with more mechanical
knowledge, like, oh my God, it's
insane.
It didn't slip off that shelf in fall.
Yeah.
That is crazy.
Yeah.
I mean, that, that guy would have
fucked us all out of, you know,
like the oldest steamboat still
working, I think.
Yeah.
It's 111.
Wow.
What a dick.
So it was the idle wild.
And when I first learned that,
I was in elementary school and
another kid had made a diorama
of it and it said idle wild.
And I was like, oh, that looks
incredible.
That's when I learned that it was
first named idle wild.
Then it went to the south and it
was the Avalon.
And that was from, that was, so
it was from 1914 to 48.
It was the idle wild.
Then it was the Avalon until
63, 48 to 63.
Excuse me.
When Louisville bought it in 63,
that's when it became the
Belle Louisville.
And so they got, the Coast Guard
cleared it for one run that
year in 63.
So they were like, well, let's
make it worth it.
So they challenged the Delta
Queen, I think, to a steamboat
race.
And so 63 is when the great
steamboat race started and they
would do it during Derby.
And when I was a kid growing
up, we'd always like, I think
they'd pull the TV out in
school.
Oh, okay.
And they would let us watch
the steamboat race in
school.
You would watch the steamboat
race?
Yeah, they'd shoot it from
the helicopter.
Was that fun to watch?
Yeah, it was super cool.
Really?
Yeah.
Because it's a part of Derby
Celebration.
And that weekend, I think, is
Thunder over Louisville, which is
supposedly, they say the
world's largest fireworks
display.
I think it's North America's
largest fireworks display.
Okay, yeah.
Because I think in China, they
might have some pretty big
ones.
Totally agree.
I think, isn't that where
most of the fireworks come
from?
However, it is, it may be a
true fact.
It might be the world's
art, but I don't know.
Anyway, they would just do
fireworks all across the
bridge, Second Street Bridge to
a big waterfall.
It's nuts.
Whoa.
That's cool.
How fun.
It is.
It just seems like it would be
sort of a slow race.
It is slow, but like, you know,
welcome to Kentucky.
We're betting on it.
Oh, okay.
Is that the same motto?
I mean, it's a kickoff.
It's a kickoff for a horse
race.
Right.
Okay.
Well, horses go.
So, yeah, people are getting
early betting on the
steamboat race.
Oh, they are betting.
They're, of course,
they're betting on it.
That's a big deal.
Okay.
All right.
Well, the kids are
betting.
That's why they're
watching it.
And then, yeah,
when I was a kid,
Grandma would take us to
like tall stacks in Cincinnati
and they would have a pretty
good slew of steamboats,
literally just like the old
days.
Like in Cincinnati,
it's like a boat ramp
and they just dock and they
more, you know,
they tie off their moorings
up there and they're just
like how they used to be.
And so like some of the
videos I watched,
they talked about,
like that the bell level
sound for like coming in is
a long two shorts,
a long and a short.
And then that way,
people on the shore would
know that this boat is
coming up and it's okay to dock
and like, yeah,
get ready to take it for
wherever you're going,
whatever you need it for.
So it was cool.
I mean, the steam whistle,
the calliope,
which is like the,
it's like a steam organ
that they play.
Yeah, that was really cool.
There's a Tom White song
called calliope that I
like a bit.
But yeah, I mean,
I would,
I used to ride across
the second street bridge,
going to work at this,
at the bike shop and the
screen printing shop in
Louisville.
So I would hear it.
I mean,
you just see the bell
not unusual.
Yeah.
Wave at the people on it.
Steamships.
I mean, it's,
it was,
like I said,
it was kind of boring to ride
on, but I would love
to go again and ride on it.
Yeah.
I like being on a boat.
I don't mind just
staring at the water.
I just think that like,
we're so far past
that point in history.
Like when I was younger,
it just was sort of just
like, yeah, steam boats,
of course.
Yeah.
Now we're like entering
the point where people are
like steam trains
boats are a lot further away.
Yeah.
So that's like when I went
to see the trains down here
and I just joined the museum
like, why not?
Yeah.
So yeah, I would throw
money at the bell.
Yeah.
It's cool that they got it
out of the water
and they worked on it
and things still chugging.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
So what a story.
Yeah.
What a survivor ship.
I mean, the Delta Queen
is cool too.
I think the Delta Queen
is bigger than the bell.
It has to lay its smokestacks
back to go under
the second street bridge.
Oh, okay.
I've seen photos of that.
It's cool.
Are they on giant hinges?
How do they lay back?
Yeah, they are.
Crazy.
Other ships are like that
but the Delta Queen
I think is a stern wheeler.
So I might be getting that wrong
but I think a stern wheeler
the wheel is in the middle
of the ship.
I mean, I'm not going to sit
here and pretend that
I've got my ship terms
down.
How heavy are those stacks?
I guess stern wheeler.
I just wonder if stern
wheeler is at the back,
right?
Port and bow, stern
and starboard.
How heavy do those stacks are?
I don't know.
I'm just thinking of the
logistics of getting them
up and down.
They just do with cables.
Cables and pulleys.
Yeah, I figured it was cable.
I did get that it was a cable
pulley system.
I mean, no, there could be
a steam ram.
A steam ram could pull the
cables.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, that's what I thought
it was a cable.
It's got some power.
But yeah, I mean,
there's a lot of cable.
Okay, so some of the other
cool stuff is like
it shows these two levers
and they like
they can be on either
side of the wheel
because there is a big
driving wheel.
So they pull on the levers
and then you'll watch the
wheel go for a bunch of turns.
But then there's a break
that they can push on the break
and stop the rudder from turning
because they're like,
when we're coming in to dock
it can get away from you.
And so you'll have to step
on this break and stop
the whole system.
And one of the videos,
the captain was like,
yeah, that's from the 1880s.
It has two steam engines.
And what I learned in the
video that I didn't know
is that the engines were
pulled from another ship
earlier.
So they're older
than the
than the Belleville itself.
Oh, wow.
OK.
They were not brand new steam
engines when they were put in
there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it used to run on coal
and now it's a diesel burner.
Well, it's pretty neat.
I mean, it is really neat.
I like it.
Yeah, I'd like to go
ride it again.
Not that I'm going to be
rushing back.
Yeah.
I was like,
when are you going to Kentucky
again?
Oh, OK.
But I did see a video
about steam boats on the
Klamath.
And they were like
small steam boats.
Oh, OK.
Like one or two people
riding in them.
Oh, wow.
And there was a really cool
one from South America.
So they have to do the
shoveling, too, if there's
only one or two people on?
Yes.
OK.
Yes.
And there was one
that had been like a sailboat
in South America
and then was like converted
to steam in the 60s.
And it had been a steam boat
since like 63.
And apparently it had been
used in booze running
and then the authorities
captured it, realized it was
a fast boat and then they
used it for catching
people.
So it had been on both sides
of prohibition.
And then it became
the steam ship
and this lady runs it
on Klamath.
And wow, it was cool.
I mean, because they like
all have steam whistles on
there.
Yeah, that's cool.
And the boiler's right
in the middle of the ship.
What if they had
like a tourist
attraction where
that you could only have
like five people on a ship.
So one person is
actually in charge
like the captain.
And then the other people
have to learn how
to shovel and they have
to like get the steam,
you know, make sure
that the boiler's
steering.
And then I don't know
if the other person
can maybe it's just
the boiler part.
I don't know if they
should be steering, but
if you could actually
operate the steamboat
because it's such a
small ship, that'd be
very cool.
Yeah.
And the, you know,
there's there's one
like the guys like
I built this whole thing
myself, everything.
It's like I machined
all the stuff.
Oh, wow.
You know, whole holding
thing made the boiler.
Damn.
Made the boat,
everything.
That was a paddle
wheeler.
And it runs that
yeah.
It was super neat.
And it was like, you know,
they were like, we have
five ships here this year.
It's really pretty out
there too.
It's always this stuff
I want to go see, but it
just looks like the saddest
stuff.
Just like small groups
that you're like, wow, so
few people care about
this.
It's so neat.
Cimo, one of the
friends of Patrick
in the club and stuff,
he's got a steam powered
motorcycle.
Oh, crazy.
Well, how does he
keep the steam going?
I don't know the answer
to that.
He's shoveling.
No.
No, first of all,
I just wanted to
be oil burning.
Like the bell oval.
And second of all,
something that we didn't
know.
Modern steam engines,
they weren't shoveling coal.
So what was happening
was there was an auger
going from the coal car
up to the boiler.
So it's just
constantly.
Okay.
Yeah.
It's breaking up the coal
and then there's like a
steam powered fan that
it lets you direct where
the coal is going to go.
So it like gets up to
that point and it's like
you can shoot it in
if you're like,
we need to heat up this
corner up here.
We need more coals up there.
You launch the little
chunks of coal into
place where you want it
and even it out in the
boiler.
Whoa.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
And somebody did say
one of the guys
in one of those
interviews was like,
we would cook on a
shovel.
He's like,
we'd put a shovel in
the firebox.
He's like,
we just cook right on
ordinary shovel.
And he's like,
you'd have a can of beans.
He's like,
you'd have to poke a hole in
the beans so they wouldn't
explode.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Damn.
That's cool.
Yeah.
Very cool.
What if anybody ever
made a cookbook
about cooking in the
train?
Like they made
for cooking on a car.
Well,
okay.
I guess the recipe would
be poke hole in can.
Eat beans when hot.
I mean,
that's pretty much what
Yeah.
But some people might get
crazy.
It's like a really cool
thing to be like out in the
middle of nowhere running,
you know,
80 to 100 miles an hour in a
locomotive.
And then you're having like
bacon and coffee under the
stars in this train
ripping across.
Yeah.
What?
Wyoming?
It's the American
Dream right there.
Yeah.
Is that cool?
Yeah.
That would be very cool.
I mean,
real cool.
It's like my,
it's like my
romantic dream to drink
good coffee everywhere.
Well,
it's like a devil's gap in
Wyoming.
That's cool.
You know,
What was favorite about it?
It was just such an old spot
where people had come through
on the way to Utah and had
died.
And Native Americans had a
story about a giant beast
cracking the rock.
And so this is a cool spot
where people had stood and
stared as well.
So to share that moment
and that spot,
and it was just like this
cool, crisp morning.
And there was like nobody
around,
just fire ants in the
parking lot.
I love the fire ant.
Just having coffee
and sort of just like
experiencing this giant
open plain grass everywhere,
huge rock.
Yeah.
That had amazed people
and had been a spot to hide
during snow and
where people had died.
And there's just a lot,
you know.
A lot of history right there.
Yeah.
There was a lot.
Yeah.
You're gazing out upon
something that someone
like you who was trying
to conquer the landscape.
You know,
I was trying to get to
Minnesota and they were
trying to get to Utah.
I was just going for
the frivolous adventure.
Right.
They were going to live.
But I was still thinking
about them in the past.
You know,
those two moments are still
happening in those moments.
Right.
Yeah.
So.
Yeah.
Just sort of piled them
up on top of each other
and enjoyed my coffee there
and thought about
what else had taken place
there.
Yeah.
That's cool.
Yeah.
It was neat.
Same thing right in the
same thing right in the bell
level.
Just sort of riding it
like people would have
loved it back then.
I mean,
it was a beautiful ride,
but like I said,
we were kids.
What do you want me to do now?
Like Mitch Hedberg's
above ground pool.
You want me to throw the ball
back to Jimmy?
It's like,
anyway,
he's got a joke about
what do you do
at an above ground pool?
You know.
Swimming it?
Yeah.
He's just like,
I can't even drown
my kneecaps.
You know.
So it's like,
I just kind of like
Dana Carvey talks about
taking his kids to,
you know,
the Coliseum.
Because that's what
I'm trying to say.
Yeah.
We're a little
underwhelmed,
but like,
I'd love to go that now.
So cool.
Yeah.
It's adult stuff to do.
I think, I mean,
unless you got a real nerdy
kid.
Yeah.
Unless you got a nerdy
kid that really understands.
I think again,
it's just sort of seeing
that distance,
that huge distance
between like,
we're not going back to
that.
We're not going to get
back to there.
It's good that we can
hold on to these things
of how we used to do it,
but it's also like,
it's sad to see that stuff
kind of struggled to stay
because it needs support.
Yeah.
And we're not,
we're just not smart enough
to be like,
for posterity,
let's keep this thing going.
But like,
that's not the job of
people like us.
You have to do intensity
matching,
like how much do I care
about steam boats
that I can cut out of my,
that's on some rich person.
Yeah.
I don't have that
to give to steam boats.
I think they're cool,
but I'm not.
That's it, right?
I think that people
do support them though
because they're still
on.
Yeah.
I think it relies on some rich
person being like,
yeah, I'll cut you all
a fat check.
Help the thing keep going.
Yeah.
So it really hangs on
by a thread,
but it's too bad
that we don't have
more to give to it.
Yeah.
Have more.
These old,
these old relics.
Yeah.
But at least it's out there.
You know,
it's a shame that
something like LST325
like struggles to be,
you know, funded.
And yet it's still sales
in Ohio to show people
what World War II was like.
For the people that, you know,
were right there
on the beaches.
So anyway,
there's some ships for you.
Gina.
Some ship stuff.
Steve.
Happy to do it.
We'll do it again.
Mm-hmm.
Plenty more.
Whatever you say.
Yeah.
Plenty more.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, there's those cool
drag boats in like
Thailand or whatever.
They've got like
turbos on these motors
and they're just like
strapped to an engine
blasting down a waterway.
Oh, like the jet boats?
Like they're like skiffs, like.
Oh, crazy.
They're not like the racing boats.
They look like racing boats,
but they're small
and they just have like
have a rudder steer
and they're in like Thailand.
It's like looks like
young like motorcycle
and no ped guys like
on these like inline
motors with turbos
just blasting.
It's really cool.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
I like to be on the water.
I'm not big on it.
No,
I'm aware of that.
Yeah.
I'm not big on it.
There's one thing
I know that you're
like it's water.
Yeah.
I'm not crazy about it.
Yeah.
I mean,
mostly I just swim,
but if somebody has a boat
and they want to take me on it,
I'll definitely go.
Yeah.
Well, hopefully,
hopefully everybody feels
like they've done been piled up.
You've been piled up
because that's what we got
for you.
Do we have any news
or anything?
Well,
rolling coffins
got on with their event
and we didn't make it,
but it looked good.
It looked awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It looked really good.
Vanna baby posted
a date of December 3rd
last year.
The reason why was
they said Saturday,
December 3rd,
and I was like looking
on the calendar in 2033
was the next time
that the 3rd was going to be
on a Saturday.
Oh, it's not on the 3rd.
So it's on the 6th.
It's when?
December 6th.
Oh, okay.
All right.
Vanna baby December 6th.
You heard it here.
We'll put a link to that
in the show notes.
Yeah.
You've been piled up.
You've been piled up.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
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