Up late

I was about to go to bed when I realized I had forgotten to do some laundry, and Adam didn't have any pants to wear to school tomorrow. So, it was time for a game of Spider Solitaire (three, actually) and looking for blog items until I can put his jeans in the dryer. I found this ...

The high water this spring has messed with the ferry at Sistersville, W.Va., pretty bad. It's been able to run only a minimal schedule because it can't run when the river is really high.

And this ...

Ohio was the point of introduction for a critter that has become known as the Lazarus lizard. The species is from Italy and was released in the Cincinnati area, and the Ohio River is still the center of population here in the U.S.

Oh well, the washer has kicked off. I can put Adam's jeans in the dryer. That boy can go through them in a hurry without trying.

Good night.

These old eyes

I needed Adam's eyes this morning.

I went into downtown Huntington to pick up something I needed for work before I went into the office. I took two minutes to go to Harris Riverfront Park to see if any boats were going by, and I saw the Jerry Tinkey upbound. I stood there thinking about how it was an old M/G boat when I looked down the river and not two tow lengths behind it was a boat I didn't recognize. It looked like a St. Louis Ship boat, but I couldn't make out the name. It looked like it had an ADM logo on the stacks and an ARC logo or something on one of the lower decks, but I couldn't make out the name on the nameboard. The name was two words, the second of which may have started with a "D".

I didn't have my camera to get a shot and zoom in on the photo. And I didn't have Adam with me. His eyes could have read the nameboard with no problem.

Later, after checking vessel locations and Dick's Towboat Gallery, I figured out that the mystery boat was the Prairie Dawn. I wish I'd had my camera, as I don't have a photo of it.

Black and white, part 2

Here's another in a series of black and white photos of Ohio River boats. The Charleston looks good this way, but it looks good in color, too. Maybe it's just a good-looking boat, what with the way the lines flow like a wave off a rock. I don't know anything about the interior layout or how she handles or anything like that, but I like her lines.

This was scanned from a color photo (or a negative; I can't remember which) from the 1980s.