Franklin Furnace

We left Shawnee State Park this morning in the rain.          Again.


We've seen many, many coal carrying barges along the river.  Each tow has 3 wide and 5 long barges full of coal.  There are coal fired power plants all along the river with hunderts of barges of coal staged for unloading and waiting to make electricity.  What I don't understand is why we see full barges of coal going in both directions.  It seems that the coal would come from one direction, and the empty barges would be going back that direction to fill up.  But we see full loads of coal going upstream and downstream.  Where's the efficiency in that?

Pam found some more wildlife on the shore today.

We've gone under several suspension bridges.  Today we went under a suspension pipeline.

It's been a while since I've seen any flying saucers.  Coincidentally, the sightings stopped just about the same time I quit drinking.  However......................................

Tonight, we're staying at Holiday Point Marina near Franklin Furnace, OH.  You never know what to expect when you pick a spot out of Quimby's.  (Quimby's is a guide that lists every marina on every inland waterway.)   This place has a lot of "character."  It's got a lot of older boats--I'm sure their owners see them as "classics."

 

 If you've ever wondered what to do with that old catamaran sailboat--here's one option

This may be the only marina with a swing bridge to connect the docks.  You push a button, and this bridge swings across to the far side.  It needs to stay open most of the time to allow boat traffic in and out of the marina.

In addition to the "character" boats, it seems there may be some interesting characters who keep their boats here.

And as we get closer to Point Pleasant, WV and the Silver Bridge, things like this start to show up