GRAND RAPIDS MI
Mar. 7 2015
PART 2
East on Pearl Street in Grand Rapids. Up ahead, Pearl crosses the Grand River.
From Pearl Street, we're looking at Ah-Nab-Awen Park - the onetime home of Occupy Grand Rapids!
It's the President who - according to legend - couldn't walk and bubble at the same time! (And I bet he tried too! Haven't we all?) The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum overlooks Ah-Nab-Awen Park.
The Grand River from in front of the museum. The bridge at right is the Gillett Bridge. Across the river is the DeVos Place Convention Center, which opened in 2004 and was financed in part by Amway cofounder Richard DeVos Sr., part of the royal family of Michigan far-right politics. The tall building at right is part of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel (owned by the right-wing Amway). Notice also the walkway running from in front of the convention center, above the river, and under the bridge.
A Gerald Ford statue looks out over the Gillett Bridge. Here you have a better view of the unusual walkway from the convention center that goes under the bridge.
The convention center, plus the bridge on Bridge Street.
Gillett. The best a man can get. This is yet another view of the Gillett Bridge, with Ah-Nab-Awen Park in front.
The Gillett Bridge is strictly for nonmotorized traffic, though it was reportedly originally designed for trolleys.
On the Gillett Bridge, a view of the Pearl Street bridge and the Blue Bridge.
North from the Gillett Bridge, you can see the Bridge Street bridge and the I-196 (Gerald R. Ford Freeway) bridge. (Also, I-196 and I-96 west of Grand Rapids used to be reversed.)
A plaque on the Gillett Bridge talks about the Grand River spans in hairy detail. Best all, this plaque uses the Sesame Street font!
This statue honors Gerald Ford's college football career. In the background is the ramp from US 131 north to Pearl. US 131 is on the wall behind that.
West on Pearl going under US 131.
On the way home, this is a view of South Bend, Ind., from the US 20/31 freeway that bypasses the city on the southwest.
On US 31 south of South Bend, there was this billboard for dentures that had a Colonel Sanders look-alike! People will see this billboard and they won't know whether to eat some chicken, get some dentures, or do both simultaneously!