Amanda and Graham's Great Pig Adventure

25th March

Another 3.30 call for 6.00 show so time to explore the town. Portsmouth is another small town centre with historic buildings and lots of antique shops. The Ohio River frequently floods so there is a high flood wall which has been made more attractive with murals all the way along, depicting historical scenes.

The river is wide and looks as if it has strong currents. There are two attractive bridges, one named after Ulysses S. Grant. There is a lot of construction work going on as they upgrade the riverside path but we picked our way along and were rewarded with a long bird list! After a chilly start it got quite hot again.

Another University theatre, Shawnee State University, and instead of bought in catering today, we were taken to the student canteen, which made a change as we could all choose what we wanted. It was a very wide auditorium with no centre aisle – I always wonder about fire regulations! There were separate door entrances for each few rows as well with no way to move forwards or back if needed. A decent audience, all grouped together near the front which was much better. We had some great responses!

In the evening most of us went out to a bar for cocktails. It had a great atmosphere and some retro arcade games like Pacman!

The bridge was floodlit in blue.