Meandering along the Ohio River

The two main routes this morning were highways 50 and 52.  Lightly traveled and scenic.  There were more nuclear power plants.  A Google search failed to reveal exactly how many NPP's there are on the Ohio but it's alot.

Lots of small towns, mostly built in the late 1800's.  In various states of ruin and reclamation.  Some quite lovely.  Lots of waterfront property available on the Ohio.  Anyone?

Passed only one rowing club and that was in Cincinnati.

Random sights...

A doctor's house that was part of the Underground Railroad.  The doc who lived here on Front Street in New Richmond, Ohio delivered President U.S. Grant in addition to providing a safe haven for escaped slaves.

Right next door was the world's only cardboard boat museum which sadly was closed.  But a peek in the window was almost enough/too much.

Also on front Street this bur oak of which the town is justly proud.

This cute hotel would be fun to stay in but we hit it too early in the day.

We made several stops in Kentucky.  Went along lots of back roads but they had little to give us.  Not great collecting in Kentucky so we pushed on.  This will give us more time to play on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers as well as out West.  

The push through Ohio

Yesterday we spent a lot of time on back roads.  The collecting was great but the scenic drive was slow.  Today is the big push.  We want to get West.  We left Pennsylvania this morning driving out US Highway 30 West which runs from Atlantic City to Astoria, Oregon.  In Pennsylvania it's a really nice route through lots of quaint small towns, antique alleys, and nice farmland.

We spun off of 30 to pick up Routes 2 and 7, both running along the Ohio River in West Virginia and Ohio respectively.  The Ohio River route was interesting.  It's actually quite beautiful, very verdant, but is punctuated with coal loading plants, nuclear power plants, gypsum manufacturing and the like.  It gave me an appreciation for the sacrifices that are made so we can have a power grid.

Random images from the W. Va side of the river.

Memorial to 118 mine workers killed in 1924

Coal chute over the highway

It was pretty amazing to see three nuclear power plants one right after the other in such a pretty landscape.  

Chewing tobacco is big around here