From the Ohio to the Upper Miss

I know this happens all the time, but still ...

Before turning in early for the night, I decided to look on the Upper Mississippi River just in case I found any familiar names among the boats there. I found several boats that used to stay pretty much on the Ohio or that have been frequent visitors to my part of the Ohio (Greenup and Robert C. Byrd pools, mainly).

I saw the Darrel L, the Detroit, the Ohio and the Sam M. Fleming, among others on the Upper Miss.

The Mississippi south of Cairo looked pretty busy, but I recognized maybe one or two names, and that was it.

And the part of the Ohio from Cairo to Paducah looked active tonight, although Cairo itself has been busier. Actually, it looked pretty good up to Cincinnati before things started thinning out.

Yes, with coal shipments down and bumper crops of various grains in the Midwest plus a lot of crude oil from the Bakken that has to get to refineries, companies must deploy their assets where they're needed. But still, this explains in part why the Ohio has been bare of towboats a lot of times when I've gone down to the river looking for something to shoot.

Today I saw the Pass Christian tied up to the West Virginia shore just below old Lock and Dam 27. It was underway again in a little while, and it's long gone from here now.