M/V Enid Dibert

It's not often that I get this close to a Crounse boat, despite how often I see them in my area. So when I get an opportunity to get one close up ...

I take it.

Happy New Year, everyone.

M/V Yvonne Conway

 The Yvonne Conway of Crounse Corp. passing Huntington this week.

M/V Susan Robinson

 Working with images from earlier this year:

I can't remember from exactly where I shot this, but that's South Point, Ohio, in the background.

Two boats on the river

 The AEP Mariner at the Mountaineer Power Plant near New Haven WV.

And the Mt Airy at Clipper Mills OH.

Just a couple I saw yesterday. I saw three Crounse boats. I got a decent photo of one I may post soon. The other two weren't in good shooting spots when the light was good. That's the way it goes sometimes.

End of Philip Sporn

For some reason  — I'm sure there's a good one — demolition by explosion seems to happen more often in cold weather than warm. That's been my experience here in the Ohio Valley, and it happened again today when the old Philip Sporn Plant, a coal-burning power plant idled in 2015, came down.

Sporn joins a list of other retired coal burners that have met their end in recent years: R.E. Burger, Killen, Stuart and Beckjord come to mind first. Zimmer could join them. There are a few I think have been demolished, but I'm not certain.

As I understand it, once the Philip Sporn site has been cleared, it will be available for redevelopment.

There are a couple of other coal-fired power plants on the Ohio whose future is cloudy. We'll have to see what happens in 2023 and beyond.

M/V Mae Etta Hines on a windy day

After an internet outage at my house that dragged into weeks, I can finally get back online and post entries here. You might know the outage came as I was preparing to make a new series of entries -- a listicle, I believe it is called.

So let me say what this guy on the barges of the M/V Mae Etta Hines said to me this afternoon as it passed Huntington WV.

And here's a photo I got of the boat just so you know we're still out there, although I'm starting to think my days of walking up on bridges, climbing up and down the riverbank and climbing on the riprap at locks and dams is nearing its end. It's time to develop a new strategy of finding photos worth remembering.

The wind was blowing so hard today up on the bridge that it was pushing my lens around as I tried to frame my shots. Seriously.

The Mae Etta Hines holds a place for me and my youngest son. It was launched as the Hoosier State on the day he first saw the Buckeye State, and we attended the Hoosier State's christening in Rising Sun, Indiana, the following May. Adam even got to steer the Hoosier State lightboat out on the river after the ceremony. It was an exciting experience for a fourth grader who had already driven a school bus fresh off the factory floor by then. The boat may be the Mae Etta Hines to everyone else, but it will always be the Hoosier State to Adam.

Anyway, it's nice to be back online.