Trying to make a steady helm with one engine out was tough and tougher yet against a cold front, driving upstream with wind white capping the building swells. It was cold, and our faces red from wind burn, so when we reached Brandenburg, Ky., it was time to pull in and wait for the engine part we needed. It turned out to be a lucky stop people wise, for waiting at the shore was Good Samaritan, Mark Brown. He spotted us from his bluff top home and came down to see if we needed any help.

Mark was a carpenter, a county judge, and a state legislator, but his avocation is helping river travelers. Once we secured the Wetland Wanderer on the muddy bank, he took us on a tour. I enjoyed the view from his house and from the Brandenburg cemetery where numerous Brandenburg's were buried back in the 1800's. Then to Doe Run Inn, a bed and breakfast with a restaurant that brags great homemade fried chicken. Daniel Boone named the creek Doe run for all the deer he saw near by. Abraham Lincoln's father did the masonry work on the building finished in 1821 as a gristmill. Before the day was over it seemed we had met half the population of 2,500 people. Pat loaned us a car to get supplies and take pictures, Tim offered to fly my deck hand Jimbo to Memphis when he leaves us tomorrow night and everyone offered us a bed. We declined the bed offers to stay at our home, the boat.

Brandenburg rung a bell in my mind and I asked Mark what it was famous for and he said, "In 1862, General John Hunt Morgan took 2000 Confederate troops across the Ohio here and on April 3, 1974 a tornado came across the river and killed 31 people as it knocked down the court house and other structures". I remember the tornado.

After lunch we ate some bean soup at Little Dave's down by the River and headed back to the boat where we lined up the parts. Lucky in people, unlucky in weather for it dropped to 29 degrees Thursday night, the wind died and the river rose 15 feet, after a red sky sunrise the clouds came back, we got sleet and then rain all last night. When we pulled in here, the Ohio looked like a river, today it looks like a lake of which it truly is for we are behind another lock and dam 74 miles below.

In spite of the weather, what a great place to stop.