Pamela Dewey in South America (Updated)

Well, Adam was a bit bummed tonight. We had heard the mv. Pamela Dewey was headed to South America, and tonight I found a photo of it and three other boats posted by Gustavo Di Iorio.

"That was my second-favorite Viking," Adam said in explaining his disappointment to his mother. She tunes out a lot of conversations Adam and I have, by the way. For some reason, she's not interested in some of the things that fascinate him, such as the difference in length between the AEP Mariner and the Mountain State.

But I still have several photos of the Pamela Dewey on the Ohio River he can look at from time to time.

UPDATE: Actually, the AEP Mariner and the Hoosier State are the same length, according the AEP River Transportation website.

For some reason, Adam has had it in his head for a while that the two boats are of different lengths. When he got home from school today at 3 p.m., I told him the AEP Mariner  was in the area, but that we weren't going out to chase it and photograph it. The river is up, the light is bad and we plan to attend the dedication of the Hoosier State next week anyway. We looked up the boats on the AEP site, and found that they are the same length. Adam shrugged off his error and moved on to his next order of business, which was finding an after-school snack.

Busy river for a Sunday

This was a really busy Sunday on the river here in my area. I saw the Mary Harter, a Crounse boat in the distance, a 1960s-era Dravo in the distance, the Titan (I think), the D.A. Grimm, the R.L. Carter Jr., the Charleston, the Lelia C. Shearer and another Campbell boat. That's a lot more than a normally see on a Sunday trip from Huntington to Point Pleasant, W.Va.

I don't know if a lot of coal is moving now or what, but for some reason the Ohio River was busy with towboats today.

UPDATE: Here is is shortly after 9 p.m. I just checked vessel locations. At least 13 boats locked through Greenup upbound today, and at least 7 locked through RC Byrd downbound. Yeah, that looks pretty busy.

Work at Emsworth

The Pittsburgh District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave a media tour of repair work under way at the Emsworth Locks and Dams last week.

The Pittsbugh Post-Gazette and the Beaver County Times were among those in attendance.

There's no doubt the locks at Emsworth, Dashields and Montgomery need to be replaced, and perhaps the dams, too, but where would the money come from?