On the river, yellow

I know how towboat pilots feel about people who operate pleasure boats on the Ohio River, especially pilots' attitudes toward boaters who won't get out of their way. I don't recall talking to pilots about their opinions on people on personal watercraft buzzing them and playing in their wake. The next time I talk to one, I'll have to ask.

That brings me to these photos I shot today when I should have been somewhere else. Most speak for themselves. I was glad the guy and guys on the one watercraft had a lot of yellow. That';s' a color I don't get to work with much in my pictures of the Ohio River in summer. Fall, yes. Summer, no.

One more. This is a portable CD player in the water where I was getting most of these pictures.

Three news items

Ohio's transportation officials are starting to talk up increasing the transportation use of the Ohio River beyond traditional bulk commodities. They talked about it in Ironton a few days ago, and here they are talking about it in Marietta.

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If I lived near or spent much time in Louisville, I'd probably be all over what's going on with efforts to build two new bridges and rebuild part of Interstate 64 along the river. Sitting here 300 miles up the river, it looks like things are to the point where planners are putting documents out for public review. Sitting here 300 miles up the river, I don't see how they can do something that big and expensive without tolls of some sort, but with politics you never know.

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Remember a day or two ago when Asian carp were the biggest ecological threat to rivers since the zebra mussel? The official line now is that they aren't so bad, mainly because there's money to be made.

Two boats

There are few boats that can get Adam and me to stop the car and run to get a good look or a good picture. This is one of them. It's the Ronald E. Wagenblast of Marquette Transportation, formerly the John Ladd Dean of the Ohio River Co.

We saw the Wagenblast as we approached Point Pleasant from the south on State Route 2. We thought it was a Viking. As we parked at Tu-Endie-Wei Park to go to the Point Pleasant River Museum, Adam caught the red and the shape of the pilothouse roof and recognized it as the Wagenblast. We were a few minutes late for our appointment at the museum, but the folks there understood.

And here's the Charlie Melancon as it passes Bradrick, Ohio, and Huntington, W.Va., on a fine comfortable, humidity-free summer evening as the sun dropped ever closer to the horizon, blanketing the area with a rich, warm, golden light.