Signs of Spring

Wonderful, thanks and tomorrow they are saying we'll get snow her in Derby City.

Not too many sounds prettier then that! Thanks for sharing

Here's our sign of spring

Thanks for that warm video Dan. Here's what Rock Island woke up to this 5th day of spring (20 degrees, wind chill 9):
if you look closely, you'll see a NATCHEZ ring buoy on the shed. Buried in the snow is a ratchet from the SPRAGUE and a section of DQ bumper guard, among other things in the backyard...

Snow Belle!

Thanks for sharing that wonderful sound on this site and on Facebook. When the BELLE comes upriver for a shakedown, please blow a whistle for the museum when you get to the Jeffboat marine ways. It always "makes my day"!

We awakened this morning to a dusting of snow, gusty winds and chilly temps! This weather is relentless! I remember, LONG AGO, when I was a crew member on the BELLE in the early 1970's and our first charter of the season was for the University of Louisville during the first week of April. That night it snowed so hard that Capt. Harris Underwood, longtime pilot on the BELLE, could barely see the roof bell! BUT, it was technically spring and we were steamboating!

Judy's pic put the hex on us. Nice day here in New Richmond, partly sunny, temps mid 30's and then all heck broke loose. By three pm 1 1/2" snow cover, hi winds and temps in the upper 20's. Oh well lots of paper reports to do.

Sorry about that, Bill!

Yes, all winter I've been saying its a great time to get indoor stuff done. Today I finally read about 2 weeks worth of newspapers. Now I'm packing for Memphis - no boat involved, going to see our Rock Island guy lead Stanford in the basketball tournament. I drove to St. Louis last week for his games, and saw the river only as I drove over it!
It is so cold here that the snow is NOT melting as you would expect this late in the season!
But we did have the first tow of the season pass upriver a couple of days ago, so there is hope...

Melt, as in, become a liquid

Sometimes we get our heaviest snows in the spring. That is the case now;
4" and counting. This is on top of great, heavily packed drifts that don't know what the word "melt" means. They are surrounding our tour boat. Looks like it is floating on a sea of snow.

Yeah, Lexie, we here on Gunpowder Creek are host to any number of robins. They sit around with their feathers all poofed out wondering where the springtime went! SIGH! While it was GREAT to hear that whistle on the BELLE, heralding the advent of spring, apparently the weather lady din't hear it! Cap'n Walnut

Memphis

I'm sitting here in my hotel room downtown and watching the river - saw a couple of tows unbound, that's all. On my Riverfront Trolley ride this morning we passed 4 boats tied up in the MQ fleet, but I couldn't get a good view of them due to the levee. While it is warmer here than home, it is so windy there is an advisory out, and walking through downtown this morning was like walking through a wind tunnel. The most frustrating thing is that right outside my window is the monorail entrance to Mud Island - but it doesn't open until April. That would have been a wonderful way to spend the day waiting for the basketball games tonight. Nothing is green down here yet, which surprises me...

Here on California Gulch

In spite of it all, we are seeing bluebirds and the redwing blackbirds are singing away. I have always associated redwings with being around water in the depths of a hot steamy summer. It is wierd. We just got even more snow.