This morning, while the sun was still in its immediate post-dawn golden hour and fog clung to the Ohio River, I saw the M/V City of Pittsburgh here. I got lots of pictures, with most of them being duplicates because I was testing various camera settings to see what worked best.
I like it when towboats are so close you can smell them. They have a distinctive odor that sometimes you have to be on board to appreciate, but this time a boat was close enough to shore that you could tell you were in the presence of an Ohio River commercial towing vessel.
They say the sense of smell is the strongest one for stirring up memories or creating emotional bonds.When Adam was a baby with barely any hair and still in a high chair, I would walk by just so I could get a deep inhaling of his scalp. And a few years ago I stood along Ohio 7 where my father had had his farm. A Hereford was down over the hill, and I could smell a pile of manure from beef cattle. It wasn't so bad. Dairy cattle manure I can live without, but beef manure can have a sweet, almost likeable, smell.
Back to the topic: Sometimes boats have to wait at the riverfront for a while before the crew change comes. Thus, I left to run to the post office. When I returned, the yawl or whatever they call the smaller boat with the outboard engine was being lifted out of the water. Not having seen anything, I can't say for sure a crew change happened. What I did notice was that the City of Pittsburgh left before a Crounse boat coming up the river could overtake it. So I went to a convenience store for an errand. I had this thought in my head that maybe the Crounse boat was having a crew change, also. When I got back, a man and a woman were in a yawl leaving the boat ramp, and a guy in a white van with the Crounse name and logo was leaving, too.
If I ever get around to writing that book, don't be surprised if a couple of photos from this morning are in it.
