On our way home from Millie's, I said, "Let's go look at the river." We were headed down Pear Street and the car was pointed in that direction anyway. We drove the rest of the way down the hill, across Dock Street, and into the Great Ship Lock Park. This park holds the eastern end of the Kanawha Canal and the lock to raise and lower barges between the river and the canal. The lock still works, but the canal can't accommodate big vessels anymore.
Today wasn't the best day for admiring the river and the canal from the park. The canal had been drained so it stank. Amazingly enough, there were a couple people dangling fishing lines in the dank, slimy puddle in the bottom of the canal. Why they'd want to hang around breathing the air, much less eat anything from that stinky puddle, I don't know.
The water level in the lock was low too. We stood on the edge and looked down at the water, green and oddly swirling. The drizzle dropped little rings in the water, the occasional fish flopped, but neither phenomenon could account for the strong eddies on the surface of the water. Oz's theory is that there's some current through there and some object underneath the surface causing the eddies. Boring. A Lock Ness Monster would be cooler. Imagine, a Richmond ichthyosaur!
232 words | January 15, 2006 12:09 AM | Real true story