Remember the flurry of activity as you finish home projects and spiff up the house before family comes for a visit? Especially when mom is part of the contingent with her eagle eye to dust and clutter?

On the one hand you want to impress and on the other you don't want to be embarrassed--a double incentive to put in an inordinate amount of work in prep.

The City of Columbus has not one, but two, reservoirs on the Scioto River created by the construction of gravity dams that impound water and impede the flow of the river. The next leg of my journey was along the stretch of river between these two reservoirs.

South of the O’Shaughnessy dam the Scioto River runs through the city of Dublin. I visited several Dublin parks with Mime Migliore, Nature Educator with Dublin Recreation and Parks. Providing access to the river and encouraging people to visit has been a goal of hers for the past several years. Most of the land along the river is privately owned, but Dublin does have some holdings and the Parks Department has made the most of these access points in recent years. We did a driving tour to see several of the sites where Dublin residents can get close to the river that runs through their town.

The thought of paddling our way from one end of O’Shaughnessy Reservoir to the other was less than appealing. Without a current to help you along, paddling a lake takes more effort. The presence of power boats and water skiers means you have to hug the shoreline. The sheer size of the body of water means you either choose to limit your exploration to one shore or you circle the lake in the blazing sun. All of this is my way of explaining why I chose to explore O’Shaughnessy mainly by car – with one kayaking excursion. In spite of not being on the water for the entire length of O’Shaughnessy, I found this part of the Scioto River surprisingly interesting.

It was sunny and cool on June 15 when George, David and I headed to a put in point just south of the town of Prospect. We sited a Red Headed Woodpecker on the road that parallels the Scioto. River mile 170.93 is just below an old dam. A pipe that runs under the road carries run off from farm fields into the river. The high levels of algae growth indicate that nutrients, like fertilizer, are in the water that the pipe carries.