The Kentucky on the Kanawha

It's not often that a big Ohio River boat gets very far up the Kanawha River. Most of the time they're on the lower three miles or so, where barge fleets are assembled. Most of the work above there is done by Amherst Madison's smaller boats or when Marathon Petroleum sends one of its smaller boats up to Charleston and perhaps to Hugheston with some barges of petroleum products.

But every once in a while Marathon sends one of its big new boats up that way. The Marathon made a couple of trips up there in 2011, and I got some shots. The past two days, the Kentucky has been on the Kanawha. I got these pictures in the early morning light at Charleston. First, as seen on a couple of sidewalks near the mouth of the Elk River ...

... then from the sidewalk of the South Side Bridge...

... and from a sidewalk down by the river, next to the bridge.

Sometimes to get a discussion going with Adam, I'll say I think the new Marathon boats are prettier than the new AEP boats. He always sticks up for the AEP boats. I don't know which I prefer, but I can argue either way.

One thing I do know is that the light was good for these pictures. I took them in early morning. By solar noon or so, the boat was in shadow and the photos would not have been nearly as good.