The Ken Boothe Sr./Lakes Contender Passes Milliken State Park

I had yesterday off.  I had originally planned to go over to the Welland Canal this weekend but other things cropped up and put the kibosh on those plans.  I looked at AIS and saw that the river wasn't particularly busy but it was busy enough, so I headed down to Detroit.

 So first up was the tug/barge combination Ken Boothe Sr./Lakes Contender.  She's been on this blog a few times before but not before this year.

 This is rapidly becoming my favorite tug/barge.

 The tug is called the Ken Boothe Sr.  I believe both the tug and the barge were built in Erie, PA.

 The pair passes under the eye of Sauron.

 Another shot of the tug.

 Kind of a shot of her pilothouse.

 And she passes by.

 A shot of the Renaissance Center.,

And the Ambassador Bridge.

Remember Today is Election Day

I know I have a few readers that live in other countries but it seems like the bulk of my readers come from the United States.  As such, remember that today is Election Day in the United States.  Please remember to go vote.

I realize that with all the money that flows into politics, you feel like your voice is not heard.  Well, this is one way for your voice to be heard.  Voting the bums out sends a pretty strong message.

The Sunrise Wolverine

I was up early this morning and as I looked at the time, I realized that I could probably catch the Wolverine as it passed by Ypsilanti.  After a brief hop in the shower and getting dressed, I headed down to Depot Town to catch it.

 I decided to go on the Depot Side becaue I was hoping to catch some of the sunrise light.  It was a little overcast, so I wasn't sure that would happen.

 I guess I caught a little bit of them but I was hoping the side would be illuminated a little more.

 One thing about trains is that you don't have much time to dilly dally when taking pictures of them.  Especially if the train in question is the Wolverine.  She was pretty much flying by.

 As this picture would kind of indicate.

One more snap before heading back home.

One Small Kitten to Carry On

I thought I would take a little longer to get a new cat but I needed the pitter patter of little kittie feet.

 So I introduce Chessie the Cat.  Well she's Chessie the Kitten for now but you get the point.  She was the reason why I didn't go out boatwatching today.

The other night I was at Petco looking at their adopting cats and they mentioned that the Planned Pethood folks would be there over the weekend.  Since I had the football game yesterday, I had to go check things out today.  I was pretty sure I was going to walk out with a cat but I wasn't sure which one.

Of all the cats I looked at, she responded immediately.  Plus she kind of looks like Zappa.  As I was holding her in the office kind of place, I told her that she has big paws to fill.  I realize that she will never replace Zappa because she's her own cat but she will help heal the hole that was left by his passing.

I look at her and I wonder how someone could abandon her.  She's a cutie.

The Moon

Of course I had to take a picture of the moon tonight.

Sadly, the settings for the moon that would have captured the dusk colors would have made the moon look like a gaseous ball of something.

The Arthur M. Anderson at Dusk

For reasons that I will explain in a couple of posts, I didn't have much of a chance to go boatwatching tonight.  I'm kind of bummed about that because I could have caught a few freighters today.  But I'm excited for other reasons.

 The ship that I did catch made up for all the ships I missed.  Namely because that ship was the Arthur M. Anderson.  As you can see from the picture, I barely caught her before the light left.

 Really that's okay though because it made for a nice picture.  I don't usually catch a ship with the moon in the background.

 She just quietly goes on doing her boat things.

 And another shot with the moon.

 I didn't have too many opportunities for pictures.

Because this is a spot where they pass pretty quickly.  The next opportunity would have been Detroit.

Eastern Michigan Vs. Central Michigan Football

So I went to the Eastern Michigan game today.  Despite the sunny appearance of the pictures, it was pretty cold outside.  It was also pretty windy which made it feel much colder.

 A shot of the Eastern Michigan football helmet.  When I first saw this, I didn't really like it but I do like it now.  It seems that Eastern is going all in on the Factory theme.  If you notice the #2, that is in honor of Demarius Reed.

 Getting the touchdown cannon ready.  As it turns out, they didn't really need to do that.

 Swoop during the pregame stuff.

 The ROTC color guard bringing the colors out on the field.

 Another shot of them.

 The eagle landing on the field.

 They still did the wall thing today.  It almost seemed like one of the players may have hurt himself during this stunt.  I hope that some of the powers that be saw that and may reconsider this.  I like it but they should really try different bricks or something.

 Reggie Bell during his only series of the game.  It sounds like he took a nasty hit to the helmet, so they took him out as a precaution.

 Lavallii running roughshod over the Eagles.

 Bronson Hill finding an opening.

 Another Central running back finding daylight.

 Hunter Matt trying to find his way towards the quarterback.

 Rob Bolden during a run.

 This one was on the few bright spots of the game for Eastern.  They managed to block a punt and nearly got a touchdown out of it.  The final result was that they spotted the offense on the 6 yard line and the offense was finally able to score a touchdown.  But that was too little too late.

Swoop after the game.

Eastern ended up losing 38-7.  For as much as they looked competitive in last week's game, they didn't look it this week.  Despite the 38 points, the defense didn't look too bad.  They got a few key stops, an interception and the blocked punt.  Still, the offense looked terrible.  I'm pretty sure that Coach Creighton will be able to make things happen for next season.