Helicopter seeds

The other day, when Adam and I went up on the 6th Street bridge at Huntington, W.Va., to get photos of the mv. Linda Reed passing Huntington, he gathered as many "helicopter seeds" as his hands would hold. One by one, he threw them off the bridge, counting the seconds until they hit the Ohio River 87 feet below (usually more than 30).

The breeze was at our back, so when he let them fly, they went out where we could see them and he could count the seconds. Sometimes the breeze carried them so far he couldn't see them when they hit the water.

Before we left the bridge, he found a better way to launch the seeds. Every few feet, the sidewalk had drain holes that went straight down. Adam would drop a seed in the hole and watch the breeze catch it and shoot it forward like it came out of a gun.