Advertisement
Published: July 11th 2019
Edit Blog Post
We have stopped at a couple of pretty, small towns as we continue our adventure up the Ohio. Huntington on Saturday is the end of our journey and then we turn around and sail back to Cincinnati on Sunday. Unfortunately we are also making preparations for disembarking on Monday. Our journey is almost over!
Along the river bank and bluffs are many large houses contrasted with trailer parks on lower ground. Some have their own jetties and it’s evident there is more leisure activities.
On the other side of the river yesterday was Madison, so we were in Indiana not Kentucky. A very pretty town, most of which was moved to higher ground after the huge flood of 1937.
Madison was so small we could walk around to few blocks dashing from shady tree to building shadow. The railroad museum had a Little Red Caboose parked outside which we could walk through. I didn’t realise so much activity went on in there. It contained bunks, a cast iron fire and stove. It was a bit dangerous as sometimes they were rear-ended by other trains.
The Lanier Mansion built by a wealthy banker in 1844 was one of
the nicest we have seen. There were only two guides inside and we could all wander around the rooms looking where we liked. Unusually it contained a cantilevered spiral staircase going up to a cupola on the roof. There was a stunning view of the river with a formal garden in the front. The low box hedges were covered with cobwebs visIble in the early morning dew. They might have been made by a funnel web spider as there was a distinct funnel/hole in the middle.
I couldn’t believe it after leaving Madison, we went through a rather large lock as you can imagine and there in front of us, sharing the lock, was a very low fizz boat. I’m glad I wasn’t them sitting watching this monster come behind them. Fortunately there was plenty of room in front of us.
A number of large coal fired power plants have been built on the river bank evidenced by many coal barges sitting waiting to be emptied. There doesn’t seem to be any hydro electric plants. Apparently they are all out west.
Today we are in Augusta, back on the Kentucky side of the river. Guess which famous
A cute little keyboard
I’m not sure how it works person is associated with Augusta? No other than George Clooney. His mother has a shop here, called simply
Nina’s. And his Aunt Rosemary used to live here and there is a house dedicated to her memory and is full of all her memorabilia. George has a summer house here but unfortunately he wasn’t home!
The town is very small - 3 blocks back and about 5 along the river front.
We’re not leaving until 9pm tonight so it’s quite good that we don’t have to rush and can go back to the boat for a cold drink, afternoon snack, a zizz and go back out again. I’ve just been out again at 5.30pm - it hasn’t cooled down much. Afternoon snacks alternate between popcorn, ice cream, a biscuit/cookie and always includes an iced coffee.
The 1811 jail here was an eye opener as it was still being used in 1975 to ‘house’ a couple of wayward brothers. You will be shocked. We tried to lift an ankle ball and chain (not that they wore them in 1975) i could hardly lift it with two hands.
Later we will go ashore to photograph the boat all lit
up.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.065s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0269s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb