American Heritage

 Passing Huntington WV a little before noon EDT today.

American Melody

 The passenger vessel makes its first trip this far up the Ohio. Here it's heading back downstream past Greenup, Kentucky.

Passing Greenup KY

 The M/V Porter J. Furlong passed Greenup KY last week.

M/V Porter J. Furlong in black and white

I got in a black and white mood tonight, so I went looking for recent towboat pictures to see if any would l look OK that way. I liked this one in color, so I edited it for black and white. I think it works well this way.

M/V William P. Morelli

 

M/V Kentucky at the Greenup Locks and Dam

 As seen yesterday evening as the sun was setting.

Caught in my own game ... but I liked it

I was up on the bridge a couple of days ago to get a picture of the M/V Paula Ruble as it passed through the Huntington area. Unknown to me, my older son, Joseph Ross, was down at Harris Riverfront Park trying out his new drone by getting pictures of the bridge I was on. He didn't know I was up there until yesterday, when he was showing me the photos he got and I noticed the Paula Ruble in some photos. Long story short, he went through his photos and zoomed in on one to find me shooting the Paula Ruble after it had gone under the bridge and was heading down the river toward Catlettsburg. 

I tried cleaning it up, but this was what I got. I might try again later.

Here are two pictures I got of the Ruble while I was up on the bridge, one approaching me and one heading away, as you can tell.

These were taken before the ones I posted yesterday.

M/V Paula Ruble, 5/25/24

 There was good light late yesterday afternoon for getting photos of one of my favorite boats.

American Queen meets the scrapper

Most of you probably know by now that the steam overnight passenger boat American Queen was delivrered to a metal recyling yard at Houma, Louisiana, this week. I don't know what to add to the conversation you've probably alreay heard other than to say ...

I enjoyed photographing that boat. My then 10-year-old son and I got to tour it and shoot stills and video for the company I worked for at the time. We saw the wheelhouse and the engine room, if I recall correctly. The visit to the engine room may have come on a different tour in 2017. I don't recall right now and those photos are on a hard drive that needs its power source repaired.

I can think of lots of business reasons for the boat's new owner to have it scrapped, but that doesn't mean I or we have to like it or approve it. At least the Delta Queen is still sitting somewhere, waiting for the day it can be considered refurbished and ready to travel under its own power again.

Point Pleasant River Museum

The Point Pleasant River Museum and Lakin Ray Cook Learning Center is open again. It opened back in September, but a grand opening event is scheduled for this summer, possiblythe first week in July.

I wrote about it in my column in The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington.

Here are a few pictures I got when I was invited up there on Wednesday. Mason County Commissioner Rick Handley invited me to be his guest at a Rotary meeting in the museum because I had bugged him about the museum for a while.

First, a model of the Silver Bridge.

A model of the Delta Queen.

A relic from a beautiful boat that was scrapped a few years ago.

A model of a Dravo Viking with an interesting name.

A model of the W.P. Snyder Jr.

And in the lobby is a portrait of the late Jack Fowler, who is credited with having done the work to make the museum what it is today. Fowler passed away after the old buildinb burned and before the new one opened.