The Barbara H and the Juanita

Dick's Towboat Gallery has a couple of photos of the Barbara H.  I remember her as the Donald B when she was a working boat at Maysville, Ky. In the 1980s, we had three small working sternwheelers in this region of the Ohio River: the Donald B at Maysville, the Lady Lois at Catlettsburg, Ky., and the Juanita at Lakin, W.Va.

 I did a news story on the boats when I worked for the Huntington paper. At the time, the Juanita was owned by AEP, and it pushed a few barges around the AEP dock at Lakin. I remember interviewing a guy who worked on the Juanita and, they said, was very attached to it. His name was Worthy Love, if I recall correctly

The Juanita has changed ownership since then. I saw her at Point Pleasant, W.Va., last September when she and other boats were there for the Maritime Days celebration. Her owner gave me a tour of the boat. It was a great experience.

Webcam at Owensboro

Via Barry Griffith, Owensboro, Ky., has a webcam pointed at the Ohio River. You can see it here.

If anyone else knows of a webcam pointed at the Ohio or one of its major tributaries, please let me know. I'll probably put links to them in the left-hand rail. And please, let it be a major tributary. The Kanawha River at downtown Charleston is one thing. Kinnickinnick Creek in Ross County, Ohio, is another.

Mud

I'm guessing I'm one of the few people along the Ohio River who likes taking pictures of mud. I like how the river deposits it and shapes it.

Here in the Huntington area, the blue is returning to the river in some places, although the river remains overwhelmingly brown-orange. I had to go out for a while today, so I went by Harris Riverfront Park and got a few photos of the mud.

First, as the river has gone down, it left mud on one of the parking lots at the park.. As you can tell, the noon sun was shining pretty bright today.

It appears a bird or birds walked in the mud and left their tracks. Another, larger critter also left a track to ponder.

A thin layer has dried already.

On something completely different, when the river goes down, it leaves trash behind.