Week #7, 16-22.October, 2005

Portsmouth, OH to Cincinnati, OH: Ohio River Mile 363 to Mile 471

With the sun setting off our bow and the full mooning rising in a beautiful sky of soft pinks, purples, and blues, we pulled into Manchester, Ohio Sunday night right next to this side-wheeler--the Chattanooga Star .   We had spotted her out on the river a few days before and were excited to meet the crew.   What a serendipitous meeting it turned out to be! The captain of the vessel, Mike Hosemann, had brought many a boat up and down the Mississippi and had many wise words of advice for us.   That very night he had us over to the boat and we poured over the charts of the Mississippi as he offered words of caution and regaled us with tales from the mighty river.   We also had the chance to meet the two other crewmembers, Jeremy and Ed, who are standing along with Captain Mike in the picture.  

The next morning we found our way to the school in Manchester and did our program for three classes.   We had the chance to meet with the children again that afternoon because they were coming down to the river to take a ride aboard the Chattanooga Star , and Captain Mike had invited us along.   It was a great treat to get to go out with the children who we had just talked with in the classroom.   For many of them, it was their first time on the river.   In speaking with Captain Mike the night before, we had discovered that we were both on our way to Cincinnati and he offered to tow us along side his vessel.   We decided that they seemed to make sense both so we could speak with him more about the Mississippi environs and so that we could get to Cincinnati early.   After the trip with Manchester's fourth graders, we brought our boat up along side his, lashed her securely to the deck near the starboard paddle wheel, and got aboard the Chattanooga Star .   As the picture to the left shows, the Libelula never had so much wake off her stern as she produced getting towed!

We had a nice day and a half tow to Cincinnati and appreciated the additional advice and extra time to rest and work on a few projects--Mike and his crew were great hosts!   Here, Mike tries his hand at playing Morgan's bass fiddle.   His boat is the flagship vessel of the non-profit organization Mike and his brother Pete founded in order to bring school children out on the river who might not otherwise have the opportunity to learn about and experience the waters near their home. Check out their website at http://www.rivertrek.org/ .

One of the frequent sights along this portion of the river are coal power plants. If you live in the Eastern part of the United Sates, some of the electricity that you use in your house on a daily basis may very well be created right here at this plant. This is a photo of electricity in action.

We were in Cincinnati for a special event--Thursday was World Water Monitoring Day and an educational trip was planned for several fourth grade classrooms in the area.   One of the organizers had invited us to come along for the journey and do a version of our presentation for the students.   The event was sponsored by the Ohio EPA and by the non-profit educational division of the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO), which "was established on June 30, 1948 to control and abate pollution in the Ohio River Basin."   ORSANCO's education boat, the stern wheeler P.A. Denny , arrived at the public waterfront in Cincinnati about 10am and the students got on board.

The students had four river-based education stations to visit with a break for lunch.   This is when we got the stage--ORSANCO had billed us as their "lunchtime edutainment." We had about twenty-five minutes to do a program, and in spite of the cold wind and outside noise on the deck, the fourth graders (and everyone else aboard) seemed to enjoy the presentation--look at all those raised hands!   We're not sure exactly what was going on in this picture--perhaps Morgan was running back to get the musical instruments for the vaudeville song we perform, or maybe he was just dancing a little jig--but in any case, we like the energy of the photo's moment.

Several hours later, the students disembarked, hopefully filled with a new found appreciation for and understanding of the river.   Everyone gathered at the bow of the P.A. Denny to wave good-bye.   In addition to the River WaterWorks crew, the picture to the right shows several of the onboard educators along with some ORSANCO administrators.   The P.A. Denny hosted a number of other guests that day, including the director of the Ohio EPA, ORSANCO's executive director, and at least two reporters, one from a local NPR station and one from the Cincinnati newspaper.

After the event, our ORSANCO educator contact, Heather Mayfield, made sure we were set and took us around town in her car in order to do some errands.   Included in this run was a trip to ORSANCO headquarters so that we could see where they had arranged for us to keep the car and trailer for the week.   Heather also gave us a tour of the building and brought us in to see this beauty--a huge portable tank that can be brought to large events.   She explained that the tank is filled with water, usually from a hose from the local fire department, and fish from the Ohio River are temporarily captured and put in the tank so that people might gain a better appreciation for the diversity of life in the river.   Indeed, we learned that day that the Ohio River boasts over 140 fish species.

We spent the rest of the weekend in Cincinnati doing a list of unglamorous chores, including laundry, food shopping, and returning to Pennsylvania by Greyhound bus in order to bring the car and trailer downriver to Cincinnati to use for events in Louisville, KY the following weekend.   As we headed downriver, we had one final view of the city covered in light fog.   The closest bridge in the picture is Cincinnati's beautiful suspension bridge, while in the background to the right is the yellow bridge that often gets referred to as the "Mc Donald's Bridge" because of its resemblance to the golden arches.   We were sad to leave such a beautiful sight behind, but excited to be on the water again.

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