Tour guide at Greenup

 

This afternoon I went to the Ohio side of the Greenup Locks and Dam to see if there was anything interesting to photograph. Because of the position of the sun, there wasn't. As I stood at the top of the bank surveying the scene, I met four older people who had arrived in two vehicles, each bearing Missouri license plates.

We talked about the dam, the river, how the power plant was built in France and shipped to New Orleans and then up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. I talked about the bridge that was added to the dam 35 years ago and gave them a brief history of the dam itself. They asked if there was a place on the other side where they could see if boats were locking through the dam. I said there is, but it's been closed to the public since 9/11.

After about 30 minutes they left and I wondered if I should contact Chuck Minsker at the Corps of Engineers in Huntington and bill him for my services as a tour guide. Probably not. Probably not.

Before I left, I got a few photos, but none really good. My first shot was different, though, because I wasn't paying attention to the camera settings when I snapped the shutter.

At home, I was able to play with it to get this.

It's not really salvaged, though. The dam and the electric plant look okay, but the sky and the water definitely don't. Oh well. They both are different, though.

Two boats at South Point ... and a loss

 

Today we had two boats at the Marathon Petroleum fleeting area at South Point, Ohio. Pictures in a minute, but first some sad news.

Many of you know by now that last Monday Jack Fowler, the only executive director the Point Pleasant River Museum and Learning Center has had in its 21-year history, passed away. Fowler did so much for the museum and for the awareness and preservation of river history in one of the most river-oriented cities along the Ohio. He won't be there to see the groundbreaking for the new museum, sad to say.

At a reception Dec. 15, 2017, at the Point Pleasant River Museum and Learning Center before the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Silver Bridge collapse, Jack Fowler, right, the museum's executive director, talks to Tom Smith, West Virginia secretary of Transportation, about what caused the bridge to fall. About six months later, the museum building would be damaged by fire. Most of the exhibits were saved, but some, including the bridge model, were damaged. Ground could be broken soon on a new museum, with the hope it will be open before Labor Day weekend next year. 

I wrote few thoughts and published them in the Huntington paper. Jack definitely will be missed.

Today I went to South Point and got photos of the M/V Galveston Bay at the lower end of the fleet ...

... and the M/V Marathon at the upper end.

I've seen a lot of the Marathon lately. The Kentucky is in the area, too, but the Detroit -- the first of these three boats that Marathon took delivery of, spends almost all its time elsewhere. The same is true of the M/V Nashville, formerly the M/V Valvoline, which itself was the first of three similar boats Ashland Inc. took delivery of in the late 1980s.

A missed opportunity ... but I'm glad

If I had planned by evening better, I would have had some interesting photos to share. The M/V Dan Elder came up past Huntington WV while I was at Harris Riverfront Park as the M/V AEP Future was coming down the river. They met about a mile above the park.

The AEP Future was heading into the late afternoon sun, and there were at least two people on barges as it passed. If I had only been up on the bridge ...

But I wasn't. Today was the first time in a long time I could have play time with my oldest granddaughter at the park. Once we were there constantly, but school and work and COVID-19 and other things got in the way. I think this was the first time we had gone to a park to play since February. Or it seemed that way.

You know what? I don't care that I missed the boat pictures. There are other boats. There is only one seven-year-old girl in my life who needs time with her papaw.

Geese on a log

It's not nearly as interesting a concept as snakes on a plane, and I seriously doubt even Samuel L. Jackson could salvage the plot, but we did see them today during a short stop at Virginia Point Park in Kenova.

We were down there to see the M/V Francis J Blank.

Not such an exciting day on the Ohio River, at least around here, unless I missed something, which is possible.

A good evening at Sand-O Harbor

This evening I went down to Sand-O Harbor, as the late Willie Wilson called it, to get a picture of the M/V Amherst. The Amherst was there, but not in a spot where I could get a good picture. I did, however, get decent photos of about half a dozen other boats. There was too much going on to not stay and enjoy the light.

Here is one of my fair-to-middlin' pictures from the evening. It's the M/V Sandy Drake of Crounse Corp.

(Best viewed large. This is a low-res version of the original, by the way.)

There are lots of photos to look at and to process to make them look really good. It should keep me busy for a few days.