Good cleanup Sunday

The Farley Family, Chris Wilson and his young companions went out with me Sunday and we collected 5 bags of litter, two tires and one blue barrel. Most of this was from above the Morgantown Dam. Above, Rick Farley loads onboard one of the infamous blue barrels that float on the river. Below is the scene as we entered the lock to go above the dam for our litter collection. I believe we counted 14 bass boats headed home for the day. The wake was like being in a bad chop on the ocean when they took off downriver, of course full throttle....

Saw an osprey too! He was at the Morgantown Lock up on a light pole.

Say, take a look at this link. We aren't the only people dealing with litter and trash in the water. Photo from Jakarta.


The photo below is of Chris Wilson, who is the carpenter who will build a kiosk similar to the one behind him down by the river. Thanks to a donation from GenPower - the Longview Power Plant - we will be installing three of these with litter barrels. One will be near Deckers Creek, one at the Walnut Street stream access next to Ruby McQuain Park, and another yet to be located.

Living on the Mon

My friend Mike Breiding recently gave me a book about a man who paddled down the Mississippi. All the way from Itasca to the Gulf. That would be great. But do you know how many people have done that? A bunch. I found a lot of books published about their trips. So, for me, that's out. I want to do something unique.

I have it! How about I live on my pontoon boat, the Monongahela Monitor, from April to November. I want to do something I can write a book about. So, I live on my boat and take notes of every town I visit and everyone I meet and every experience I have. I take great photos. And the book is Six Months on the Mon: One Man's Experience.

What do you think? In five and one-half days I paddled down the Mon back in 2005. It was entirely too fast a trip, so I didn't get much local color. But you can see what I'm getting at here . The photo above is from that trip, somewhere down in Pennsylvania.

I'll do litter cleanups the whole time. That way I might get sponsors. I'm thinking 2012.

Trash Rash: A Poem from Charleston, WV « Pick Up America

Trash Rash: A Poem from Charleston, WV « Pick Up America

I met the folks from Pick Up America down near Thurmond, WV, when I was attending the Clifftop Festival in early August. This poem by a person they met in Charleston was recently posted on their blog. The group has been in our state for some time, picking up our litter. What great kids! So click on the link above. Also, I noticed at their blog, they plan a pro-bottle bill demonstration in Charleston : "Pick Up America's Recycle Mountain!! " Monday, September 13 from 12:30 pm to 4:00 pm.

River buffs museum in Monongahela, Pa.

I was going through some old photos and came across this. These are two of the officials with the Monongahela River Buffs Museum in Monongahela, Pa. They have some very nice artifacts there.

Larry Durdines, OBL mate and a good man

Last month I received word that Larry Durdines died at the age of 58. I worked with Larry on the riverboats run by Ohio Barge Line, and I'm sorry to hear he died so early.

He had two blogs. http://tenmilecreekcountry.blogspot.com/ about his home town. Also http://larrythekidman.blogspot.com/ a site with some of his humor.

Larry was a good man. He was a pain in the butt mate, though. Of course, as I recall, they all were. Larry was always a little excited. He was excited to be alive, even if it meant going out on the tow to wire up 15 coal barges for the trip from Clairton, Pa., down to Kenova, Ky., which was dirty work often done in the rain, heat or cold. But he was always ready for it and ready to give you a smile. I guess he was just more into deck work than I ever was. He told me, later, that it was "man's work."

I'm sorry he's gone. We always talked about getting together and drinking some and talking about the old river days. We got laid off back in 1984-85, I believe it was, and I never went back on the towboats. I lost track of Larry, then one day at a festival in Greensboro, Pa., here he walked up, in a tie-died t-shirt. Smiling.

A little break in the heat

It was pretty hot for the Morgantown area last week, up in the mid 90s. But this weekend we got a break and had a nice day for a river cleanup on Sunday. Maureen and I cleaned up the area behind the Ruby Park amphitheater; then went up through the lock to hit the mother lodes along the west shore. Maureen took before-and-after shots, with some nice flowers along the shore. (Click to see larger image)

I have said this before, but it bears repeating: litter behind the dam will often drift upriver and deposit along the shores. So, when we clean up these areas along the shore, we are actually getting the litter from behind the dam. Do nothing and it all goes back to the dam during the next high water.

Here we go into the lock as the gates open, and another of Maureen, deckhand and first mate, with our catch for Sunday. We do a lot better than most people fishing. It's a great workout for older people such as Maureen and me. We were pretty tired by the end of the day.

Things you learn...

I never knew a bowling ball would float. Not until I picked one out of the Monongahela river on July 5. I thought it was just an air filled ball, like so many others we've picked out of the river.

Well, the things you learn out there. I have to tell you I was surprised when I went down to the docks a day after the big Morgantown fireworks display and didn't find a whole lot of litter left behind by my fellow Americans celebrating Independence Day. I may have to give them a benefit of a doubt. Perhaps they decided to have a little respect for a change. Perhaps.

But what about those Mayflys! They picked the evening of July 4, 2010, to transform themselves from their nymph form to flying adults. As we watched the fireworks from the deck of the Monongahela Monitor, we could see a solid swarm of millions of mayflys over the river. They were covering the boats and docks. We were amazed at this natural phenomenon.

Speaking of nature, anyone know what this is? My first mate spotted this and took the photo during a cleanup on July 3. There's always a lot of pretty stuff to see down on the river.