mv. Hoosier State

I was out this morning getting the state inspection sticker on my car renewed when my youngest son, Adam, called to report that he saw the new AEP towboat the mv. Hoosier State on the vessel locations site. He's been looking for that thing for more than a month.

If it gets up this far, we'll have to go chase it, I guess. We also have to get a good photo of the new Marathon Petroleum towboat the Detroit. This is not exactly the best time of year for such things, but we'll try.

Racine Locks and Dam

Monday was not a good day for getting pictures along the Ohio River, at least not from a comfort standpoint. The air temperature was in the mid- to upper 20s, and a stiff wind was blowing. Still, Adam and I had to go upriver, so we took a side trip up to the Ohio side of the Racine Locks and Dam.

The river was running about 12 feet above normal pool, and the fishing area was under water, so there wasn't as much good to photograph as we would have liked. But we were happy to make the trip anyway.

The hydroelectric plant on the left side of the photo was one of the first two on the Ohio to use horizontal turbines to generate power. The plant at the Greenup Locks and Dam was the other, and they were built at about the same time. Racine was built on site, while Greenup was built in two sections in France and brought to the U.S. for installation.

I did a newspaper story on the Racine plant when it was under construction. AEP, which built the plant, picked up the story and ran it as an ad in the Wall Street Journal. I guess that's the closest I'll come to being published in that newspaper.