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Manning the Helm

Lake Mead
April 22, 2006

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Ellie was getting a soda at the snack bar and telling stories to Phil, the guy working the bar. He was amused enough to tell her, "You go on up to the wheelhouse and tell Captain Jack, you're supposed to drive the boat."

So she did, and Captain Jack did indeed let her drive this old misplaced river boat, around the point and up nearly to Hoover Dam before he took back its grand wheel. When she was done, the Captain told her, "Now you go down to the bar and tell Phil that you're supposed to get a free smoothie."

So she did that, too. By the time I got down there to check on her, Phil was placing a maraschino on a mountain of whipped cream atop the smoothie. "When the captain speaks around here, we jump!"