Broken Down in Carrollton

We pulled into Carrollton, Kentucky on Friday night planning to spend the night and head out first thing Saturday morning.   Here it is Tuesday, and we are planning to head out some time before noon on Wednesday morning.   Will it happen?   I sure hope so.

I made the call to CAA at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning, they said it would take 45 minutes to an hour and they would call me when 

they were on their way. At 8:30, they called and said it would be 45 minutes to an hour. Then they called at 9:15 and said their truck 

broke down, they should be another 20 minutes to half an hour.  It doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence when the tow truck 

breaks down!

He did finally show up, and it only took him half an hour to figure out how to use his toy in such a way that it could tow our toy. 

We finally got Myrtle to the mechanics. They open at 9:00 a.m., admittedly we were an hour late getting Myrtle there, but...they 

closed up at 10:30 to go out for lunch???? lmao. I asked them where a good place to go for breakfast was. They must really like the 

place because 5 minutes after we ot there everyone from Gene & Son's showed up too.    We asked them what they would 

recommend for us to do to kill some time. They suggested walk around Walmart.


Eventually we headed back to the mechanics to see how things were coming along.   Myrtle needs a new water pump and it was on 

its way.    It was to be delivered by 2:00 p.m.     

Coincidentally,  Gene had to close up shop to take his wife  for her doctors appointment by 2:00 p.m., but the parts won't be here 

until 2:00 p.m.....so we will know by 4:00 p.m., BUT...if we are looking for something to do besides go to Walmart, there is a little 

town called Madison over the Indiana border about 12 miles up  we might find a nice restaurant there.      

We headed to Madison.   We didn't find any interesting looking restaurants, but we were very impressed with this floating dock.    The water in the Ohio river floods so often that the docks have 50 foot high poles holding them in place horizontally so they can rise and fall as much as is necessary.

Downtown  Madison.

The bridge crossing from Kentucky to Indiana was bizarre to say the least.  It looks like they started to build the bridge, then realized it didn't line up with the roads!  lol   We headed back to Carrollton to find out if Myrtle was ready.   She was not.   Apparently, they couldn't get a couple of bolts out.   There are two long bolts that hold the water pump on that run through the timing chain plate and into the block. They were going to try to get the bolts out, but if they broke them they would need to get us a new timing chain plate.  We said to go ahead and do it, and if they had to to just order one.   Then we rented a room at the Super 8.

Barge in the Ohio River.

A lady at the restaurant we had breakfast in told us there was a plaque in City Hall that shows how high the flood of 1936 went.   This plaque was about shoulder high.    City Hall is about 300 yards from the river and perhaps 50 feet higher.  

Here, I am standing at waters edge behind the restaurant we ate at.   2 weeks ago, the water was so high it came up to their porch.   I circled the steeple on City Hall,  you can just barely see it over the top of the white building on the right.

This restaurant kind of scared us....tarps over the roof and frogs legs and gator on the menu.   We didn't venture in.

By 10:00 a.m. Tuesday morning we decided we best get over to the mechanics, just in case they were waiting for us to continue on.   It had to be almost done !!!   Nope.    They had broken a bolt and were going to have to break the timing belt plate.   Ok, so do it.   Well, they have the part in Cincinnati, but it likely wouldn't be delivered until late today or early tomorrow, but if we went to pick it up, then they could probably get it done today.    Off we went to Cincinnati to this warehouse, and picked up our part.  1 hour each way.

We passed this vehicle on the way, and felt very lucky that Myrtle was not in this much trouble.

By the time we got back, the fire was out and the car was on the tow truck.   We had hoped that Gene's would have been as productive with Myrtle.   Nope.   When we got back, nothing had been done and the son who was working on her must have been gone for lunch.  sigh.   We left the part with Gene, went for lunch, then headed back to check on the progress.

He had the timing chain plate out!  YAY.    

He didn't however have anything put back into Myrtle and didn't think he would be done by the end of the day.   He said "I know youse are getting frustrated, but these old trucks are real hard for a fat boy like me to work on".      We headed back to Super 8 and rented another room.  

We told him we would be back at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, and he thought it possible that he might be at least almost done by then.

If you ever are driving down Hwy 71 from Cincinnati Ohio, and find yourself needing to pull over for the night, do not decide to drive for another hour before stopping.   Once you pull into Carrollton, Kentucky you get stuck.