NORTHEASTERN CAMPBELL COUNTY
Apr. 2006
PART 2
My return route home from Silver Grove took me up Uhl Road, which passes over the flood-swollen Fourmile Creek here.
Don't be deceived. Uhl Road looks perfectly flat in the photo, but this is looking back at a very steep grade I had to ascend. (I had to drag the bike up instead of riding it.) The road climbs about 150 feet vertically in only about 1,000 feet horizontally.
Looking south from the junction of Uhl Road and Messmer Hill Road. The area you see in the distance is around Village Green Shopping Center in Alexandria. That's where Highland Heights's economy went (because the government sat on its hands and let it happen).
I went down Messmer Hill Road a bit. We're facing the back of a very old, rusted SLOW/CHILDREN sign, for all you antique traffic control device buffs out there.
Back on Uhl Road, looking north. The horizon is several miles away in Ohio, though 2 water towers (one of which is of the hilarious legless space alien type) failed to show in the photo.
If you drive a truck, make sure your truck isn't thur if you plan on driving it here. I don't know how you can tell if something is thur, but just make sure your truck isn't. Otherwise the thur enforcement might get you. This is the old part of Winters Lane at US 27 in Cold Spring, which has basically been made into a lot for a flooring business.
It's hard to find a shot like this, folks. This is I-275 from the very high US 27 overpass in Highland Heights, looking towards the Combs-Hehl Bridge. It's almost a mile from here to where that dual bridge begins. Beyond the bridge you can see I-275 curving to the right, which is almost 2 miles from here.
The sign declares this a drug-free zone. Yeah, I bet. Anyway this is on Fort Thomas Avenue near the center of Fort Thomas. The street is unusual in that it has telephone poles on the narrow median.
As we enter Dayton, Fort Thomas Avenue becomes Dayton Pike. Here, however, it still looks more like Fort Thomas than Dayton. Sharp-eyed Roads Scholars have observed that some signage posted by the city of Dayton uses a font resembling that used on highway signs on The Dukes Of Hazzard, as seen on this weight limit sign. More importantly, the 3-ton limit would seem to prohibit heavier SUV's, so that's a plus.
It would be keen to have some photos of Dayton Pike from the 1970s, because it was Roads Scholar heaven then. Dayton Pike was heavily wooded, spooky, and dotted with very old, hopelessly damaged signage - plus a creepy billboard with a deer on it.
What's happened further along Dayton Pike is blasphemy. Dayton Pike has always been entertaining and scenic. But now they've cut some of the woods near the roadway, and they began building a new, very expensive residential development (the entrance of which is seen on the right).
A bit further on Dayton Pike, though the thick woods had been reduced greatly.
Finally we're getting close to the end of Dayton Pike and this outing. At the time of this photo, the area on the left bore an unfortunate "land disturbance permit." Hey, can I get a permit the next time I want to disturb something? At least the loss of the trees on the left now lets us see the east side of Cincinnati in the background.