Friday the Thirteenth

 

                Early in the morning my alarm woke me up, it seemed as if I had just gone to bed. In reality, I had been sleeping a whopping three hours. It was the beginning of another Friday the thirteenth.

                Coming home from work, the stars were visible outside my car windows. I was hoping that they would remain there until morning, I had some plans in mind.

                There was going to be a grouping consisting of the thin crescent moon and two planets rising above the horizon about an hour before sunrise. I was hoping to get a picture of them or if not that, at least get to see them. I had my list prepared, most of the items I would be taking were all ready in the car; my camera, tripod and the binoculars. I needed to make some coffee and I could leave.

                With my steaming cup in hand, I opened the door and saw…clouds. There were a couple stars visible in-between the bands but most of the sky was hidden.  My big decision was, should I go back to bed or should I continue on and hope that the clouds would clear up?

                I decided to continue on, why waste a perfectly good cup of coffee? My destination was the cemetery about a mile away from my house. Situated high on a hill above a wide valley it gives a perfect view to the east. Many a sunrise have I experienced there, sadly, I’ve missed quite a lot of astronomical events here also! Curse those clouds!

                Things off to the east were pretty well fogged in, bands of various thicknesses slowly worked their way across my shooting field. Every so often I’d see a glimmer of a star, Venus I imagined since it is the brightest object in that portion of the sky. I set up the tripod and put the camera on it just in case, there was still another hour until the sun came up. I got out my binoculars and started scanning back and forth. I didn’t see a thing…

                There was a period where Venus broke free of the clouds and shone like a spotlight through the clouds. Then it disappeared again. Behind me, in the west, Orion was dropping down behind some trees. The sky to my back was pretty much clear. I debated moving the camera but decided to take a short walk instead. Then a glow appeared!

                I pulled the binoculars up and saw a thin crescent moon. It was very thin, only 4-5% illuminated, but still bright enough to make it through the haze. I snapped a couple pictures before it disappeared again. Looking overhead, I saw that the clearing was slowly working its way towards the east, there was still hope!

             

               To make a long story short, the moon and Venus rose up above the clouds into the clearing sky and I did get a chance to see the planet Mercury situated below the moon. I didn’t get to see the trio together but I did see them separately. The sky was getting brighter and the stars in the west were fading so I packed up my gear and headed home. I watched the moon and Venus out my side window as I drove. At home, the pair was easily seen high in the sky, Mercury was still hidden in the trees.

                I brought the camera and my coffee cup inside, wrote some quick notes and then crawled back into bed. This Friday the thirteenth was off to a good start!

                A quick note about Friday the thirteenth, I have yet to have a bad one and truthfully, most of them have been really good. It does give me a chance to use one of my favorite words; triskaidekaphobia!   It means “fear of the number 13” Once you figure out how to pronounce it, it will become a word that sticks in your memory, that’s what happened to me!  Happy 13^th!

A Short Trip Into The Country

                He watched us go by from his perch, high in a tree. Behind him the trees were bathed in the golden light of morning, the sky was a deep, royal blue. Crows squawked and flew around him but the hawk just sat there, unconcerned. It looked as if it was going to be a great day!

                Ann Marie and I were going to take a short ride into the country. We were going to find Moonville, Ohio, a ghost town located in the southern part of the state. There wasn’t supposed to be much there, nothing more than some foundation stones but it had some interesting stories attached to it and it sounded like a fun drive.

                We crossed  30 or so miles of Pennsylvania before we entered the panhandle of West Virginia. Crossing this narrow section we came to the Ohio River where we turned south. We passed lots of old industry, some of it broken and forgotten and some repurposed and still being used. We crossed the river in Wheeling and entered Ohio.

                On the Ohio side of the river, the roads were wider with less traffic on them. The Ohio River is much wider here than it is in Pittsburgh. It appears to be only a few feet below the roads. We saw lots of tugboats pushing long lines of barges, some deep in the water filled with coal. Others, empty, sat high on the surface. Long ripples streamed out behind them. The water was mostly nice and still and the river constantly changed directions as it carved its way south.

                Entering the town of Marietta a little after 1, we decided it was time for a food stop and a stretch. We weren’t sure where we’d stop but figured we’d know it when we saw it! We passed some fast food joints and some chain restaurants but they didn’t pull us in. Driving through a residential section we saw our spot. A couple tables outside a store on a street lined with trees grabbed our eyes. Located near a traffic light, with cross streets paved with bricks, a couple people sat at one of the tables, the others were empty. We pulled over, we had found our spot!

                The establishment was called The 3^rd Street Deli. I got a Ruben and Ann Marie got a grain bowl. We both had a cookie and a cup of fresh brewed coffee to go along with our meals. We sat at a table on the sidewalk and watched traffic go by as we enjoyed what was served us. The traffic was infrequent and was hardly ever intrusive. We watched painters work on a building across the street and soaked in the fresh air. It was a day meant for eating outside!

                Our appetites sated and happy with our pick, we returned to the car and headed away from the river. We followed well paved roads bending and twisting around the hills and swells. We passed through communities that often were nothing more than an intersection and a few houses.

                Coming into Vinton County, Ohio’s least populated county, we turned south and drove into The Lake Hope State Park. A few miles further, the road got smaller and eventually the pavement ended.  A small gravel pull off was our end point.  From here we progressed by foot. The path followed alongside Raccoon Creek.  A short walk brought us to where the railroad used to be, now a bike trail. The town of Moonville used to sit below the tracks.

                The town was built in the middle of the 1800’s. At its peak there were about 100 miners and their families living here. When it was first built, the only way in or out of town was by the railroad. The last person living here left in 1947. By the 60’s everything was gone except some foundations stones, a graveyard and the near-by RR tunnel.

                The stories dealing with this “town” involve ghosts. The first and best known tale involves a train engineer who was killed when he ran his train into another one coming in the opposite direction. He didn’t see the light of the approaching train. Ever since the accident, people have seen him walking the tracks near the tunnel carrying a large bright light!

                Another story involves a brakeman who had a bit too much to drink and fell off the last car of a train. He supposedly died a horrible death on the tracks and his ghost is often seen in the tunnel, carrying a lantern. People claim to have his image appear in photos they took there!

                One more is of an old, thin lady who appears walking along the trail into the town. She falls and then disappears before she hits the ground. No one knows who this woman might be but there is often a strong smell of lavender after she disappears, hence her name, The Lavender Lady!

                Rummaging around in the weeds we found some of the foundation stones and a shallow well but not much more. Since it was in the afternoon, we didn’t see any ghosts.

                A few miles away in Lake Hope State Park are the remains of the Hope Iron Furnace. This spot is also a ghost town. The stone stack of the furnace and a few stone walls are all that is left of this community. All the houses, schools, stores and support buildings are gone now. There were 300 or so people who lived and worked here from 1854 to 1874, twenty years. This area has a ghost also!

                A night watchman was making his rounds on a stormy night and he slipped and fell into a vat of molten iron. To this day, should you want to believe it, he can be seen walking around the furnace on stormy nights. 

                After visiting the furnace we headed back towards home. The sun was getting low in the sky, the trees were all crowned with golden light and the bottoms were in the shadows of the coming night. Eventually we left Ohio’s back roads and got onto Rt.70 and sped towards Pittsburgh.  We arrived back at my house around 9:30, a little more than 12 hours after we left.

                What a nice day! A good deal of it was spent with the windows down and the fresh air blowing through our hair. The scenery we passed was great, colored with the hues of fall. Both of us slept well after our “short” trip!