Dear Kid,

We were talking about the Ohio River at lunch yesterday.

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent. John Donne. DearKidLoveMom.comNMore specifically, we were on a boat (the big kind where there’s neither wind nor destination) cruising on the Ohio River and I was sharing (and by “sharing” I mean inflicting upon people) information about the river.

Person 1: So you’re the resident expert on the Ohio River?
Person 2: Yep.
Person 3: She is.
Person 4: Uh-huh.
Me: Pretty much.
Person 1: It’s made of water.

Don’t you love intellectual conversations?

Person 3: Do you know the name of the island in the Ohio River?
Person 1: …
Person 2: …
Me: There are islands in the Ohio River?

Turns out there are 39 islands in the Ohio River (did you know that? I didn’t.). Some are private; some are federally owned and part of the Ohio River Island National Refuge. Dad knew that part.

The Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1990 to protect, conserve, and restore habitat for wildlife native to the river’s floodplain. The refuge consists of twenty-two islands and four mainland tracts scattered along 362 miles of the upper Ohio River. Most of the refuge’s 3440 acres of land and underwater habitat are located in West Virginia; however, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky each have two refuge islands.

Then we had cheesecake and the conversation moved on to sheep.

Love, Mom