There were no port calls scheduled for today; we left Marietta about 10pm last night and are due in at Pittsburgh around 12:30am tomorrow. The scenery along the banks was mostly pretty, though it was very clear that we were in coal country.
I was surprised when the American Heritage pulled alongside the shore at Moundsville, West Virginia soon after breakfast and lowered its gangplank; a couple of the crew got off and started talking with people who seemed to be waiting for us, including a gentleman in a shirt and tie whose name tag read “Rick Healy, City Manager”.
The Captain was up on the top deck using a PA to talk with them; I asked him what was up, and he said that ACL was considering adding Moundsville to its extended Ohio River itinerary and he was there to see what kinds of docking facilities might be necessary for them to add. David Dorsey, our expert speaker, said that Moundsville had a few attractions, including the Fostoria Glass Museum and a very large Indian mound (hence the name).
The parley continued for about an hour, then we pushed off and resumed our trip up the Ohio.
We got another surprise after lunch, when we returned to our room and found that the bathroom floor was quite wet. And then we discovered that the toilet was running. I got the assistant hotel manager to come up but he couldn’t turn it off; by the time they’d gotten an engineer to the room, the water had overflowed and soaked our room’s carpet.
We are now in our third stateroom on this cruise. Each has been on a different deck (the higher you go, the higher the price), but they’ve all been identical in size and furnishings; the higher decks have had a bit less engine noise, though.
We’re going through the last lock of the trip now (there are 19 on the Ohio); Pittsburgh awaits!