The Ohio River -- on it, in it, over it, beside it. No politics.
Events have limited my time at the river in the past few days, but last night I made time for a stop and was rewarded with this photo. It has some flaws technically, but I like it anyway.
For those wondering, this is the M/V Marathon of Marathon Petroleum Company after having locked downbound at the Robert C. Byrd Gallipolis Locks and Dam.
A few weeks ago I posted an overexposed image of the Greenup Locks and Dam (Mile 341). Tonight I decided to see if I could salvage the image by getting artsy with it.
I think it worked, but I'll admit I'm a bit prejudiced here.
Here are a few more photos from Saturday's Trump flotilla on the Ohio River from Huntington WV to Ironton OH.
The event began around 2 p.m. From the pictures I took in both directions while standing on a bridge sidewalk, I counted more than 100 boats participating. Most boats had more than one person aboard, so you can figure several hundred people participated on the water. That doesn't count how many may have watched from the shore.
To give you some idea of distances:
The parade started at the East End bridge between Huntington and Proctorville OH. That's at about Mile 305. The bridge where I got the photos after the event started is at about Mile 309. The downstream view from the bridge looks toward another bridge at Mile 311. From the speed of the boats and from what I saw, by the time boats at the back of the pack were getting started, some boats were already at the mouth of the Big Sandy River at about Mile 317. I heard that some boaters may have ended their run at the riverfront park at Ashland KY at about Mile 323. The parade ended at Ironton's Center Street boat landing at Mile 327.
Those are the numbers; these are the pictures.
From Huntington:
From Ironton:
Again, comments are moderated. Partisan comments will not be approved. There are other places for that.
Today a few Trump supporters with boats gathered on the Ohio River to show their support for the president's re-election campaign. By a few, I mean at least a hundred.
I went down there to see how many people would show up for this event, and I was surprised. Another surprise was that I saw no sign anywhere of people supporting Joe Biden. I looked for them, but if they were at the staging point, on a bridge sidewalk overlooking the river or at the end point at least twenty miles away, I missed them.
As a reminder, this blog does its best to stay out of politics, but if there is a river event related to politics and it brings people out, I'll cover it if I can.
This was a good day to see the variety of recreational craft on the river, that's for sure. By accident or design, I didn't see any barge traffic on the two ends of the flotilla.
I shot about a hundred photos from Huntington to Ironton. I saved maybe 25 of the best. Here is another one, taken up on Huntington's 6th Street bridge. The tractor driver is Paul Hart, a resident of Chesapeake, Ohio. In case there are any farm implement fans reading this, the tractor is an International Harvester Farmall Cub.
I may post more photos from the flotilla. It depends on how tomorrow goes.
P.S. Comment on the boats or the event itself if you want. Political comments will not be published.
UPDATE: The Huntington paper had its own photo gallery of the flotilla, and in the comments section readers posted photos of people holding Biden signs at the riverfront park as the flotilla went by. Some of the comments were unnecessarily ugly, which is one reason why comments here, if there are any, won't allow political bickering.
