Rope holds a riverboat to the dock in the Fells Point neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland.

Coiled rope holds a riverboat to the dock in the Fells Point neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland.

I don’t travel to Baltimore much; but when I do, I often find myself in the Fells Point neighborhood, which is more authentic than the Inner Harbor tourist haven. In Fells Point, you can watch tugboats and barges (I hope that’s the correct name for these boats) pulling in and out of the harbor, which is a sure sign that it’s a place where real work is happening.

The rope in this photograph was used to moor a large river boat to the pier, and it caught my attention because of its shape as it sat in a pile on the edge of the pier and because of its texture, which I like to describe as “muscular.”