Day 1
Rollin' By The River
Day 2
The Furnace Hunters
Day 3
Lockless in Ohio
September 4, 2006
I never did find a canal lock but I did find a canal and a really cool
Diary Queen.
September 3, 2006
I failed to find some Ohio-Erie Canal locks but Baby Boomer Bob found me
and took me along on visits to a couple of old iron furnaces. A good time
was had by all (Bob, Susan, Kevin, & me) and I saw some home state
sights for the first time.
September 2, 2006
The day was cloudy but rain free as I followed the Ohio River to
Portsmouth. I stopped by Ulysses' place and ended up at a riverside
concert.
Prelude
A three day end of summer weekend is the sort of thing you don't want to
let get away from you. Some ideas were bouncing around but nothing that
was really tugging at me so I figured I'd probably pick a target or maybe
just a direction come Friday or Saturday. But a Sunday night phone call
brought on a little focus. Not much, but a little. It was Baby Boomer Bob
calling from Tennessee to tell me he and wife Susan would be in Maysville,
KY, over Labor Day weekend. His plans weren't exactly carved in stone but
they were firmer than mine and gave me a sort of target.
In the past, Bob and I have talked of meeting in Ripley, OH, so I focused there first. A day or so later, the town of Portsmouth, OH, came up in a conversation in an entirely different context. I have been through Portsmouth but have spent little time there. It promised to be interesting and was in the right place to become another weekend stop. On Thursday, I received a message from Bob and learned that Portsmouth was on his radar, too. I picked up on Portsmouth because of its canal connections and the large murals that I knew were there. Bob picked up on it because of a couple of old iron furnaces nearby. A Friday night phone conversation didn't yield a firm plan but we did get a little closer. Bob and his friend Kevin were not yet sure of whether their Portsmouth trip would happen Saturday or Sunday but were leaning toward Sunday. I had already been thinking of spending Saturday night in Portsmouth so that became the anchor. I'll head east along the Ohio and Bob will call me when their plans firm up. If they decide that Saturday is Portsmouth day, I'll forego riverside stops and head on to Portsmouth. If not, I'll move more leisurely and plan on a Sunday meeting.