NATCHEZ &045; They were 3,000 feet apart, but they were together as a family for just a few brief moments.

Led by the two towboats, the Suzanne Stahl and the Merrick Jones, the Bob Keller, a gigantic oil platform, slowly made its way down the Mississippi River toward the bridges spanning between Vidalia and Natchez.

Johnny Johnson Jr. stood on the deck of the Suzanne Stahl looking out to his wife and children standing several thousand feet away on the Vidalia Riverfront. Separated by the river, Johnny, his wife Rhonda, his son Johnny Johnson III and his daughter Savannah were connected only by sight and by voice.

But for the Johnsons the fleeting minutes getting to see eachother is enough.

Rhonda and her son were busily switching from her cell phone to his binoculars to their cameras as the rig floated down the river Thursday afternoon.

For the younger Johnny, it was a reunion that almost wasn’t meant to be.

As he peered over the rail of the Vidalia Riverfront, he strained to identify the figure of his dad waving from the deck through his binoculars.

&uot;Tell him to wave his hat,&uot; Johnny said to his mother as she spoke with him from her cellphone.

Moments later, he would sigh in frustration, slouch against the rail with a look of disappointment.

&uot;I can’t see him,&uot; he said.

A few minutes passed and he gathered up the energy to try again as the rig inched closer.

&uot;Tell him to wave his hat again,&uot; little Johnny said.

&uot;He’s going to have sore arm from all that waving,&uot; sister Savannah said in the background.

For the Johnsons, reunions along the riverfront are a bi-monthly event.

Johnny Johnson Jr. works as a deckhand for Canal Barge Company, Inc, a company that runs a fleet of towboats that guide barges and other loads up and down the nation’s river systems.

With Johnson, Thursday, were others from the area who work for the barge company. With him watching from the deck were David Claiborne of Ferriday, Sean McDonald of Vidalia and Josh Powell of Natchez.

The job means that Johnny Johnson Jr. works 30 days on his job before he is able to come home for 30 days to spend with his family.

&uot;We don’t get to see him much,&uot; little Johnny said waiting for a glimpse of his dad. &uot;It’s boring when you’re at home and he is at work.&uot;

So when Johnny Johnson Jr. does make it through the Natchez on his journey from Kentucky to New Orleans, the family packs up and goes to the riverfront for a passing reunion, even if it means briefly taking the children out of school.

This was the first time Johnson helped pull a big oil rig down the river. As the Bob Keller finally made it to the bridge Thursday, it stopped suddenly to make final adjustments.

Still unable to find his dad on the towboat, little Johnny raised his binoculars for one last view across the river.

That one final pause at the bridge, was just enough for little Johnny to see he dad waving from the deck.

&uot;Mamma, I see him,&uot; he said.

As he laid his binoculars down, he smiled and said to himself in a whisper, &uot;Yes.&uot;

&uot;Now he’s happy,&uot; Rhonda said as she looked at her son.

Then the platform sped under the bridge with the top of its structure missing the bottom of the bridge by a little more than three feet, according to Johnson and the other deckhands of the boat.

The rig will make its way to Baton Rouge on a journey to the Gulf of Mexico.