CINCINNATI'S LUNKEN AIRPORT AREA
Apr. 2007
PART 1
Instead of going to a boring suburb, I rode my trusty bikey to the east side of Cincinnati. Against the wishes of the Far Right, I continued through the forbidden zone known as the 'Nati out to Lunken Airport and beyond.
My first great photo in this 2-part batch is going east on US 52. US 52 here was known as Eastern Avenue until not long before this photo was taken, but has been pointlessly renamed Riverside Drive. This is heading into a distinctive underpass beneath a rail line that generally parallels the road. (The underpass is just to the right of the curve.) This is 2 miles northeast of downtown. As an added bonus you can see those 2 high-rises that are visible from my digs in Bellevue.
Now we're going right through the underpass. Notice how the columns for the trestle, which bears a date of 1914, are right in the centerline of US 52.
Here we're looking west into the underpass.
Remember, this is in the valley on the east side of Cincinnati, so there's some terrain! From US 52, we're looking up Collins Avenue, which you can see here going under the rail line.
Looking back towards downtown from US 52. The area in the foreground has been cleared out for development. The thing resembling a tiny road in the foreground is Foster Street, which turns into Keck Street - the minuscule road you see paralleling the Ohio River. This is amusing because keck is a little-used word that means "to wretch prior to vomiting." That's your vocabulary lesson for today! In this photo you can also see the distinctive dome of St. Bernard Church in Dayton, KY, but you can't really tell what it is in the picture.
From US 52, looking up the ultra-short St. Andrews Street. You can tell there's terrain problems, because instead of a sidewalk it has steps.
We've gone from underpass to underpants. US 52 becomes Kellogg Avenue, which crosses the Little Miami River. Some genius had discarded an old pair of Fruit of the Looms along the north end of the bridge. I almost burst out laughing when I saw this!
"Drought" continues. The Little Miami River bridge is as far as I was able to go on US 52. This is looking downstream on the flood-swollen waterway, near where it empties into the mighty Ohio.
From the trail at Lunken Airport, looking northeast on Wilmer Avenue. Contrary to popular belief, Wilmer Avenue was not named after Wilmer Valderrama (famous actor who played Fez on That '70s Show).
Lunken Airport - a general aviation facility - is surrounded by a nifty walking and biking trail. The trail doesn't really go anywhere and is strictly a recreational path, and is where I saw a Belinda Carlisle look-alike back around 2002. And doggone it, I biked all this way to find a good downhill slope to zip down on my hulking velocipede, and the Allowed Cloud pictured here tried to make me walk down it! Fortunately, some goodhearted person had the last word (not The Last Word, but the last word) by painting "NO" on the sign! I also had the last word by riding my bike down the hill instead of walking it.