Maritime Days

I haven't heard yet if we're having another Maritime Days at Harris Riverfront Park this year. We've had them the last two years, I think, with both in May. They were great, as they allow regular people to get aboard towboats and learn about those things that go up and down rivers.

I am a fourth-generation river person. My great-grandfather operated a ferry, my grandfather operated a junk boat, my uncle worked on a steamboat, my brother worked on a diesel towboat and I have written tons of stuff about the river.

Although my family thinks I'm crazy, I love getting on towboats and barges and such. I couldn't work on one for various reasons, but I love writing about them and taking pictures.

So here are a few shots from recent events at HRP.

One of two engines of the twoboat Valvoline, which I rode in 1988 from the Belleville Locks and Dam this side of Parkersburg to South Point:

The Valvoline from a different angle:

My youngest in the pilothouse of the Vernon C. Smith two years ago, when he was a six-year-old kindergartener:

And an exterior shot of the Vernon C. Smith:

And some rope (or "line") used on the boats: