What to say? Yet again, I have run into some very nice people. The last couple of days have been great. I stopped at Holiday Point Marina the other day to pick up my mail and still haven't left. I had arranged to ship packages of food to different locations on the Ohio river. The package had not arrived at the marina by the time I arrived. So I hung out with the owner, Phil. Phil has to be one of the most interesting characters that I have met on my trip to date. His stories are plentiful and his bullshit is good. That is something that I have learned is common among river folk (I am still trying to perfect my bullshit). "By and by" he would say as we talked about the history of the river and steam boats. He had never worked on them himself but was a collector of other peoples river experiences. Not to say that he had no river stories of his own but his life had led him away from the river. Only later on in life did he realize the joy and balance that the river brought. Before becoming a marina owner, he had many jobs. He was a disk jockey, newspaper man, soldier, GM rep, and finally for the last ten years has been a marina owner and operator.
I learned many interesting facts about the river and river travel that I never knew. Until the nineties, there was still steam boats running up and down the river. Great wooden ships that still took passengers on long voyages. From what I remember of the conversation, they were bought and then sold by the Coca-Cola Corporation. Some to never again see the water. Now, there is only a few left and none that make overnight trips. I was sad to hear that this way of life, steam boatin', was dead. Though steamboatin' maybe dead, everywhere I look I can still find the remnants of this bygone era. In the stories of the river people I meet, I get a little window into the past. I am beginning to understand what it use to be like living on the river. I am planning to visit one of the last steam boats, the belle of Louisville over the Forth of July. Hopefully getting a glimpse of the way people use too travel and have a chance to meet a real river boat captain.
