Two boats

First, the Neil N. Diehl, seen last Sunday. The first photo was taken at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, looking back at the Kenova, W.Va., railroad bridge. The others were taken at Ashland, Kentucky.

Yesterday the AEP Legacy was in the area, so I went to Lock and Dam 27 to get a couple of images.

Eight or nine years ago, we saw these two boats a lot more often in this area than we do now, but things change, right?

M/V Niel N. Diehl

We had an infrequent visitor to our area this past week. We used to see Ingram's Neil N. Diehl up this way every so often, but as the shipping markets have changed, companies have reallocated their resources, and the Diehl is not up here the way it was about 10 years ago.

Here it is downbound passing Ashland, Ky., today.

I'll have more pictures later, but I was so pleased with this one that I just had to get it out there now.

That was the week that was, 3/16/18

One day late.

One evening I headed down to Catlettsburg to take advantage of the light forgetting (a) that it was later in the day than I thought, and (b) there's a hill behind Catlettsburg, and it can get late awful early there, to steal a line from Yogi Berra, even if he was a Yankee at the time.

At least I got to see the O. Nelson Jones and one of the 2010-era AEP boats there together.

And yesterday evening, as the golden hour began, I caught the Robinson coming down the river. The light and shadows were off a bit from what I wanted to get of the boat itself, but look at the elongated shadow of the bridge pier out toward the buoy.

The Jean Akin came down the river right after the Robinson, so I had time to compose those photos just as the sun was getting in a better spot.

M/V Jean Akin

This evening I was lucky enough to catch it in the golden hour before sunset.

Nice light, eh?

Barge spray

Or whatever it's called.

M/V Leslie M. Neal, if anyone is interested.

Steamboating on the Yukon River

If you have 20 minutes, this video on YouTube has a pretty interesting look at steamboat traffic on the Yukon River in the Yukon Territory in the 1920s.

It must have been something to see back in the day.

Painting the Purple People Bridge

OK, I can understand why some highway bridges over the Ohio River don't have sidewalks. Some such bridges are for roads on the Eisenhower interstate highway system. Those highways aren't supposed to have pedestrians on them to begin with, so that's understandable. And some bridges have a city on one side of the river and now a whole lot on the other.

But some bridges do have nice sidewalks. And at least two over the Ohio — the Purple People Bridge at Cincinnati and the Big Four Bridge at Louisville — are former railroad bridges retrofitted for pedestrian traffic. If there are other pedestrian-only bridges that I don't know about, please let me know.

Anyway, the reason for this post is that the Purple People Bridge needs paint. From a news release dated March 3:

The Newport Southbank Bridge Company (NSBC), the nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that owns and operates the Purple People Bridge, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for capital improvements the pedestrian-only bridge between Cincinnati and Newport.

The GoFundMe campaign seeks to obtain financial support from the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky community in connection with NSBC’s capital campaign to raise at least $1 million to repaint and maintain the iconic structure. ...

Every month an average of 71,000 people run, walk, bike and skate across the Purple People Bridge. The bridge is owned and operated by the Newport Southbank Bridge Company, a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that operates and maintains the bridge. The bridge can be rented out for private events, weddings, and parties.

I've been on the bridge once. The next time I go to Cincinnati, I'll do it again if the weather is good. I will say that walking up the hill to get on the bridge, at least on the Kentucky side, can be a gasser if you don't have good lungs or if you aren't in the best physical shape. Once I was up on the bridge, it was pretty enjoyable.

Entering one lane of the Purple People Bridge from the Kentucky side.

When I checked this evening, the GoFundMe campaign had raised $1,240 of its $100,000 goal.

I hope to be in the Louisville area this spring to check something out. If I do make it down there, I plan to give the Big Four Bridge a try. If you have any suggestions about best days of the week or best time of day for doing so, please pass them along.

Shale gas in the upper Ohio Valley

It's no secret in these parts that natural gas has taken market share from coal in the electric generating industry. The growth of fracking has also held back the development of wind and solar, at least for now.

From the archives: M/V O. Nelson Jones

I was looking for something having nothing to do with the river when I found a few photos from October 2015. It's the O. Nelson Jones heading into the late afternoon sun.

Nice-looking boat.

That Was The Week That Was, 3/2/19

How about a collection of pictures and stuff from this week? We had high water and stuff. As for me, it was a busy week with taking care of taxes, my son's FAFSA, more taxes, getting a new temporary money-making opportunity, and more taxes.

So here are the photos with minimal comment. A word of warning: Some of these were processed in methods I'm trying, so if they look a little odd, blame me, not the camera or the software.

P.S. I took the name for this post from a TV show that aired 55 years ago. I remember watching it, but I don't know that I understood everything that happened on it.