Miami Fort 39.114243, -84.802948

My first thoughts about Miami Fort Generating Station:  "Whoo-hoo!!!  Going to Florida!!!"  Not so much, as I was delirious from the New Mexican desert wind.  Miami Fort is actually located in the rather pretty confines of SW Ohio, right in the Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio tri-state area.  The 9th President of the United States is buried nearby and there is lots of Civil War history around the region as well.

The plant looks descent enough from the outside, with it's nice color scheme and relatively fresh paint:

Yeah, right.  This place is probably the dirtiest that I've been in (out of 16 boilers so far).  Coal dust is everywhere, the heat isn't too bad (< 130 F at hottest), but the radiative properties are rather high.  I picked up a nice, sunburn-esque boiler burn this past week.  Strange to get raccoon-eyes while indoors.  I've recently had to move our system from a nice, open platform to rickety scaffolding 25 feet in the air:

Nothing like exercising the ole sphincter factor while bobbing and weaving around our equipment and the superstructure.  I guess that's why we get "Paid by the hour!," to quote Glendo.  I wonder if all the black crap that I flush from my sinuses is detrimental to my health?

And yes, it is as dark and dreary as it looks.  I guess the aforementioned hardware store being loose is an apt description, but I always keep in mind that our bills are getting paid off rather quickly, regardless of how my shirt looks at the end of the day.  There is lots of salt that leaves our bodies during the work day:

I've had three trips in a row in which interesting events have happened.  They've even made national news:  1.  The flight into Detroit on 11 Sep (Frontier 623) had a terrorist scare and was boarded by machine-gun toting linebackers.  2. Driving through Kansas City when an Amber Alert was sounded for a missing 11 month old.  She'll be on the cover of People Magazine this week.  3.  Finally, a bunch of exotic animals were let loose upon the Ohio countryside a couple of days ago.  I wonder what's going to happen on my next trip to Germany in a couple of days?  More history?  What with the latest Eurozone banking crisis reaching a new crescendo the day I arrive.  We'll see if the Krauts and Frogs place nice with the financially inept and each other.   Stay tuned...  Speaking of history, the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio is really cool:

To quote Inspector Kemp, "Until vee meet again."

New Guy Slagmonkey