(Top) Seven-barge tow approaching Maysville, Kentucky, on the Ohio River. (Bottom) Detail from the top photo.

Artificial-flower cross inexplicably placed on stone-lined riverbank in Maysville, Kentucky.

In the past 100 years or so in America, the architecture shown in the top three photos has largely yielded to that shown in the bottom photo. As the society has become more impersonal, so have the buildings.

(Top) U. S. Grant's boyhood home, Georgetown, Ohio. (Second) Animatronic U. S. Grant as a 15-year-old boy. (Third and fourth) Watercolors done by Grant when a student at West Point. Mark Twain called Grant a "truly great man." Who knew he was such a good artist?

Curious cat, Georgetown, Ohio.

(Top) Tobacco near Georgetown, Ohio, and (bottom) corn near Point Pleasant, Ohio.

Ohio River Valley power plants.

Head of Buckley Island from the Valley Gem sternwheeler, Ohio River. West Virginia left, Ohio right.

Bicycle rack, Ohio River Museum, Marietta, Ohio.

Tickets no longer for sale for entertainment on the now dormant showboat the Becky Thatcher, Marietta, Ohio.

Home sweet homes, Marietta, Ohio.

Good way to memorialize anybody; in this case, a dedicated riverman who made a huge contribution.

Ohio River looking upstream (top) and downstream (bottom) near Fry, Ohio, where Route 800 meets Route 7.

Views from the Road

Entry Number One

A few years back, the blogger heard a man who had just bought an 8-mpg Chevy Suburban being interviewed at a New York City auto show. The interviewer asked if the buyer thought that was a bit irresponsible. The man emphatically replied, “No, I’m an American!”

America has 5 percent of the world’s population, consumes 25 percent of its energy and is responsible for 22 percent of global GDP according to Wikipedia’s World Energy Resources and Consumption site. The US Department of Energy says America is the world’s largest single emitter of carbon dioxide. The US accounts for 23 percent of energy-related carbon emissions worldwide. The irony is we consume to survive and prosper, but our consumption is killing the planet and, potentially, us.

Besides 307 million Americans being dependent on the US economy, our consumption contributes greatly to many foreign economies. Where would China and Japan be, for example, without Americans buying what they manufacture?

But the US economy is in deep trouble. Unemployment nationally is approaching 10 percent, the budget deficit for 2009 is projected to be $1.75 trillion, and the national debt is $11.6 trillion and growing. That’s a recipe for disaster.

To broadly restore US prosperity, we must create a new, fossil-fuel-free manufacturing economy to replace the one we shipped overseas during the past 20 years or so. An economy the size of America’s cannot maintain or grow based on services, trading paper and illusions. We have to make and sell tangible stuff. And we have to do it in such a way that lets us pay wages Americans have become accustomed to. Otherwise, the middle class will wither, the ranks of the barely-making-it will grow, and the nation will be headed for second-world status. That might benefit WalMart and the “gaming” industry but not much else.

The world as a whole is in grave economic and environmental danger. Some have said both problems are rooted in the same thing—excess. Too much greed, too much gluttony, too much waste, too much living beyond our means. But excess has been our mode since we became humans. The difference now is there are too many of us indulging in excess.

Up to a certain population level, the consequences of excess weren’t so devastating. With world population at 6.8 billion, Earth can no longer survive our excess. While cutting back is good, it’s inadequate because it doesn’t address the root problem. Earth simply can’t have so many people messing it up. And cutting the messing by whatever small percentage won’t do because, as our numbers increase or even stabilize, there will still be too many people messing.

The only way to save the planet from almost certain global catastrophe is to embark on a crash program to radically reduce the population while deeply cutting the pollution we spew. Birth rates must be greatly reduced so the net effect is rapid and huge population decline. And it should be done selectively because, as a woman friend of the blogger says, “The wrong people are reproducing.”

Without very serious reductions in population and pollution, we on Earth are heading for a Mad Max scenario.

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Bruce gets the nod at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. No photos allowed inside the exhibit, which includes a Challenger East surfboard from Tinker West, Bruce's first manager. 

"Besides music, the only things I ever cared about were surfing and cars." —Bruce Springsteen

The blogger knows there are benefits from and a resurgence of interest in electricity generated with nuclear power, but the plants sure do instill fear when you come upon them while driving around North America. Along the Lake Erie shore, Lake County, Ohio.

In what the blogger thought was an inspired move from an economy and convenience standpoint, he bought the immersion heater shown above for $8.55. Hmm, let's see, with coffee going for $1 to $2 at roadside stores, with motels providing inadequate or no coffee and campgrounds never providing the morning brew, it would be just a few cups before the blogger recouped the cost of the heater and started saving big, using wonderful ground coffee he buys in bulk and carries with him. The blogger used the heater four times, then it stopped working.

Lake Erie sunset, Geneva State Park near Geneva, Ohio.

"Of all the men I ever met, [Lincoln] seemed to possess more of the elements of greatness, combined with goodness, than any other."

—General William T. Sherman

(Top) Sailboats and a little sternwheeler—probably diesel powered—on Lake Erie, and (above) compass directions and distances to eight cities from a spot on the shoreline.

It's something of a socioeconomic phenomenon that India Indians have bought and run a great number of mom-and-pop motels in the US. A few travelers the blogger has met along the way strongly object. Probably as a reaction to people objecting, some motel owners post "American Owned" on their road signs. The blogger suspects the owner of the Colonial Motel in North East, Pennsylvania, said the same thing symbolically.

Grateful entrepreneur, Oneida, New York.

Contour seating in rail station at Erie Canal Village near Rome, New York.

Exterior and interior of narrow-gauge rail car at Erie Canal Village near Rome, New York.

(Top) Team of horses used to (middle) pull a canal boat for visitors to Erie Canal Village near Rome, New York. (Bottom) Bow of boat from upper deck.

An Israeli friend says Americans are obsessed with hygiene. The latest evidence is sanitizer wipes for supermarket basket push handles and (above) anti-bacterial lotion dispensers on posts alongside gas pumps. Rome, New York.

Quick! Make a decision! It's a good idea to have a navigator along when driving in an unfamiliar area. Rome, New York.

Signs like these are a blight on the American landscape. They are everywhere except perhaps in Vermont, where they are probably illegal. The owners of the sign at the bottom of the stack tried to prettify one of the ugliest fixtures along US roads.