The next Queen of the Ohio

I'm sorry I've been away for a while. Between winter weather, a new grandchild, health problems in the family and working more hours for the same pay because my supervisor left for another job, time for blogging is less now than it was six months ago. But his blog is not going away.

I did take a few minutes to go out of my way to drive along the river road this afternoon when I returned to Huntington from Charleston. Not much on the river, but the sun was nice despite the cold weather. For a person like me, February is probably the worst time to be out looking for stuff on the river. The banks are still muddy from high water, just as the concrete and asphalt areas at parks and boat ramps. We're tired of winter and waiting for spring. If the weather holds true to the past, it will be a couple of months before the trees start turning green. I can hardly wait for that to happen.

By now we've taken about every winter photo there is to take. We usually have a good snow in March just to let us know winter's not over, but the novelty is over by then and we just want the snow gone. At least the days are getting longer, and sometimes I get to drive home in daylight.

This is my new sweetheart. As you can see, she's prettier than the Detroit, the Hoosier State, the Linda Reed and the East End bridge put together. You can throw the O. Nelson Jones in there, too, and they still fall short of this beauty.

Adam and I will be back to photographing the river soon. Right now my photo time is being taken up by this little one.

Will her first word be "towboat"? Will it be "Asian carp"? Or "Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam"? Probably not, but if she any of my DNA in her, she'll be looking toward the river someday. Our family roots on the Ohio go back to the 1800s, so she probably will feel some calling to the river bank when she's older.

And when she wants to go there, I'll probably find a way to get her there.