Scenic view

Today I was driving down the road, and as I passed Ironton, Ohio, I saw the Ohio River bridge glowing in the morning sun. Morning sun has been a rare sight around here the past few weeks. Anyway, I figured it would be nice to get a photo of the bridge from the scenic overlook where I had shot the old bridge a few times. It's on a hill overlooking town. You have to climb a lot of steps to get to it, but when you do, the view is worth it.

Or it was.

This is how the scenic overlook looked today. You wouldn't have been able to see the old bridge if it were still there the way it was two and a half years ago.

This is not a gripe about Ironton. It's a comment on a common occurrence in this part of the Ohio Valley. Someone spends time and money creating a place where you can get nice views of the landscape, but no one ever thinks about how sooner or later you will have to cut the trees that will block the view.

Some of these places are along  main road, and all you have to do is pull off. With some you have to do some climbing. But too often, these views are blocked by trees.

That's it. Whine over.

M/V Michael T Somales

This boat passed by Huntington this morning on its way up the river.

The Somales is an infrequent visitor to this area. The first time I remember seeing it was up in Elizabeth, Pa., at its christening.

Here are links to the teaser, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

M/V Steven J. Mason, 6/18/19

Going under the Sixth Street bridge at Huntington, W.Va.

This was taken shooting toward the sun, but the light reflecting off the boat's stern and the underside of the bridge pleased me.

Ferry in black and white

The Ohio side landing of the ferry at Augusta, Ky.

I like shooting this boat on a rainy day.

M/V Joseph Merrick Jones

Passing under the Ohio River bridges at Ashland, Ky.

Sunday, June 16, 2009.

Fishing

Size comparison

Today the M/V Eugenie P. Jones of Canal Barge Company pushed another component of the Monaca cracker through this area. As many of the vessels making the trip do, the Jones stopped at Kenova, dropped its load and headed down to Catlettsburg for supplies.

In case you wonder how the size of the Jones' load compares with a common Ohio River towboat, here it is next to the Mary Artie Brannon.

Big, huh?

Discussion on the barge

Have you ever seen a couple of people talking and from their gestures wondered what they were talking about?

I have.

My latest river column

When I was asked to write a personal column on this subject, I thought I had kept it really, really short. When I did a word count, it came out to around 950. I could have written five times that many. But the limit was around 600. Oh well.

M/V Nancy Sturgis

Yesterday morning I saw the M/V Nancy Sturgis passing Huntington. This was taken from Huntington looking over toward Bradrick, Ohio.

The white church is Defender United Methodist Church. I've been told the church bell came from the steamboat Defender. Which came first I don't know.

And here's the prop wash from the Sturgis, which was pushing 12 barges of stone loaded to 10 feet.

I guess it takes most if not all of what an 1,800-horsepower boat's got to push more than 20,000 tons of stone against the current.

Stairway to heaven?

Nah, this isn't heaven. It's Huntington, West Virginia. Or #almostheaven

But it was nice to be able to go from the river bank back up the hill on this organic, sustainable, non-GMO staircase.

My thanks to whoever discovered this and all those over the years who have kept it up through constant use.

Campsite on the river bank

This morning while I was down on the Ohio River bank getting photos of the M/V Nancy Sturgis, I saw this. It looks like the remains of a homeless person's camp, although it could be a temporary shelter for a local fisherman, now abandoned.

It would not surprise me if this were an abandoned homeless camp. At this particular place, I've found what otherwise would be a perfectly good sleeping bag if it hadn't been left exposed to weather and high water, and I've found a shopping cart (or buggy, as my wife calls it) from a store 27 blocks away.

I have no proof any of this is from a homeless person, but the homeless tend to gather on the river bank here as elsewhere. I wondered about the sleeping bag — who bought it and why; if a person was trying to help a homeless person but the homeless person didn't care, or if he simply abandoned it for some reason; and if so, does it do that much good to go out of your way to help.

I say the last part because burnout is not uncommon among people I know who volunteer time and money to help the less fortunate. Sometimes they walk away because they feel they've been taking advantage of. Sometimes they just have to move on to other things.

Anyway, those are the thoughts this sight brought to my mind.