Touring the mv. Muontain State

Adam and I spent so much time chasing towboats up and down the Ohio River this past summer, we had to go to Point Pleasant WV for the Tribute to the River festival on Labor Day weekend so he could get aboard the ones open for public tours.

The mv. Mountain State of AEP was the one he really wanted to see. He has taken a liking to the new AEP boats, and it impressed the crew when he started talking about the two under construction -- the AEP Leader and the Hoosier State.

I've written about the boat before, and I won't repeat the basic information here.

Anyway, here are some photos from the weekend. If I had the desire and the time, I could post three or four times this many and still have angles rarely photographed by people not in AEP's' employ.

First, the boat as it was tied  up to the Point Pleasant riverfront.

The pilothouse was a popular spot on the tour. I asked the port captain if I could get a shot of Adam at the controls, and he helped by putting one of Adam's hands on a rudder stick and another on a throttle.

There are two radar displays. Those are the high screens with green. On the right of the photo is an electronic navigation chart. It displays the boat's' position, and it identifies some of the other boats in the area. It calculates their positions and speeds, and it can estimate where the Mountain State will meet or overtake the other boats.

This is what the pilot sees when he looks down toward the towing knees. Because here is no control panel directly in front of him and because he has such a large window, he can look almost straight down.

And this is what the deckhand sees when he looks up at the pilothouse.

Adam is a bit less than five feet tall. This is him in the engine room looking down at one of the two engines.

Here's the view from between the smokestacks, looking toward the front of the boat.

And this is the name of the boat that you are most likely to see from shore.

Yes, it was a very good visit. Adam and I enjoyed it thoroughly. He's learned a lot about the inland waterway industry this summer, and he learned a lot more in one visit aboard a working boat.

Now he wants to see the Buckeye State. I've seen it once, and him not at all. And there are those other two boats he's waiting to see.

That's one reason his mother calls him Jim 2.0.