Wilkesville’s 4th of July

Long and Sons General Store - Wilkesville 02-17-1969Curator Jessica and I went to Wilkesville to see if Long and Son General Merchandise store was still around so I could update photos of it I had done of it on an icicle day in 1969. We didn’t see anything that looked like it on the main drag, so we stopped into a small diner where we had an excellent lunch and found out that the building was long gone.

On the way out, we saw a flyer for the Wilkesville Fourth of July parade. She gave a squeal of excitement.

I gave Miz Jessica my standard “Do You Know How Many Small Town Parades I’ve Covered?” speech, but she is not one to be denied. The next morning, I found myself getting up way too early to head to the Vinton County town.

They’ll have at least two spectators

Wilkesville OH 4th of July parade 07-04-2015“The good news for the town,” I told her, “is that we just freed up a spot for two more people to participate in the parade. A lot of these towns are so small they have to draw lots to see who will be spectators.”

Fourth of July photo gallery

I won’t tell Curator Jessica, but it was fun to see how everybody showed up with their homemade floats and flags. I have to say that I was a little discomforted by the casual way they treated the flags, but I guess the Flag Code isn’t something covered in school these days. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the images.

Sunset on Moonville Road

Sunset from Moonville-Hope Rd 04-17-2015_8864Curator Jessica and I were headed back to Athens, Ohio, after trekking over a muddy trail to the allegedly haunted Moonville Railroad Tunnel in Vinton County. (More about that soon.)

The sun was thinking hard about going down when we passed over a low-water crossing and saw the sky splashing orange over Raccoon Creek. When I spotted the house glowing dimly in the distance, it was time to stop for a photo.

The first photos were just a little bit “cool,” or blue, so I changed the color balance adjustment on my Nikon D3100 from “Auto” to “Shade” and dialed in a bit of blue because the orange was TOO orange.

I won’t say this was entirely faithful to what Mother Nature provided, but it’s close enough that I don’t feel guilty.