I think I promised you earlier that when I found the perfect sunrise shot to match one of my favorite passages from Twain's "Life on the Mississippi", I would seize the moment. Here are the shots; here is Twain: "I had myself called with the 4 0'clock watch, mornings, for one cannot see too many summer sunrises on the Mississippi. They are enchanting. First, there is the eloquence of silence; for a deep hush broods everywhere. Next, there is the haunting sense of lonliness, isolation, remoteness from the worry and the bustle of the world. The dawn creeps in stealthily; the solid walls of black forest soften to gray, and vast stretches of the river open up and reveal themselves; the water is glass smooth, gives off spectral little wreaths of white-mist, there is not the faintest breath of wind, nor stir of leaf; the tranquility is profound and infinitely satisfying....Well, that is all beautiful; soft and rich and beautiful; and when the sun gets well up, and distributes a pink flush here and a powder of gold yonder and a purple haze where it will yield the best effect, you grant that you have seen something that is worth remembering."

Were Twain still alive and a tug captain today, perhaps he would be at the wheel of this modern tug plying southbound in the mist and the sunrise on the mighty Mississippi.