Something's missing ... maybe

This photo is from the early 1980s. In those years, I visited the West Virginia side of the Gallipolis Locks and Dam to watch boats go through the old locks. Those were the days when you could almost walk up to the edge of the lock wall and get a close look at boats going through.

Anyway, tonight I was looking at old slides from the 1980 to 1985 period, and I saw this one. I decided to scan it because it gave a closeup of the two guys on the barges as the boat went through the lock. It wasn't until I looked at the enlarged digitized image that I noticed something was missing.

The barges have no ID letters or numbers. And it looks like the parts that would have those markings hav been removed. Were they on the way to a scrap yard? Did some barges go without markings for whatever reason in that era? Am I reading too much into this?

I also noticed the barges were four wide instead of three, which makes me think they were the standard or stumbo barges we saw on the Kanawha River before the new locks were built there.

Okay, it's not exactly a thrilling mystery, and the answer would probably deflate my curiosity, but this picture did get me to wondering.

Summer fun, abandoned

It's around noon on a November day along the Ohio River. In a few weeks the area will look really brambly. That's the word the guy who drew "Calvin and Hobbes" used to describe his native Ohio in November.

But here, today, along the river, a few signs of summer persist. Some trees hold on to their leaves. And this rope swing, which I assume was used to swing out into the Ohio River backwater at the mouth of this creek so the person could let go and swim, hangs unused. It's a big rope, the kind used on the boats that push barges up and down the river.


At this moment, the river is quiet and reflective. And so am I.



I got several shots of different things today while trying to do something other than shop for groceries. I'll put them up tonight or tomorrow as time allows.