COVINGTON, KY - SOUTH SIDE
Mar. 2007
PART 2
Part 2 starts off with what I went out here for. Holds Branch Road is a mostly rural, dead-end thoroughfare that crosses from Covington into Taylor Mill. I heard this road was gravely threatened by development, so I had to see it before it was too late. However, I should have just let Holds Branch go, considering the dour welcome I received from exurbanites who have already made it their home. This photo is at the end of the public portion of Holds Branch. Past here it regresses into the Allowed Cloud of private ownership.
Now we're headed back towards KY 17 on the public part of Holds Branch. Creeping exurbanism threatens the habitat of this friendly dog, who led me about the area and left a trail of awesome pawprints.
I tried to capture more of the north side of Holds Branch Road than the south, because the north side was less spoiled by development. It was right about here where I received the hostile exurban welcome: A constipated man stopped me and harangued me about using "his" road. Mind you, I was on public property. Lucky for him, I was on my way back towards KY 17, so he didn't have to put up with my presence again. (Holds Branch is a dead end, so the only way out is the only way in, as Cliff Richard would say.) At least he didn't tell me to "go back to Amsterdam" like that grouch in Villa Hills did once because he thought I was a stoner because I was wearing a black jacket.
Much of KY 17 is Madison Pike. This is the current KY 17, looking south from the junction with Holds Branch Road. KY 17 here uses a divided highway that replaced the backcountry route shown in Part 1.
Poop again! This sign is found at Pioneer Park. Instead of "It's the law" it should say "It's an Allowed Cloud."
Speaking of Allowed Clouds...I rediscovered a trail that runs from Pioneer Park (which is along the current KY 17), over Banklick Creek, and to the old KY 17 at the rail trestle. This picture shows the railway at the overpass, looking southwest away from Covington. I defied the NO TRESPASSING sign by standing along railroad property. Because I had gotten run off from public property earlier, that entitles me to trespass on private property. Fair is fair.
I went back home through Latonia. Decoursey Avenue ends at KY 17. Here we're looking south on Decoursey from KY 17 into the heart of Latonia. Decoursey goes waaay downhill from here for a couple blocks before flattening out and feeding into KY 16.
Approaching downtown Covington on Madison Avenue near 8th. There are hardly any old or new pictures of this stretch, but here's a nice new color photo that Roads Scholars decades from now will be viewing with unconcealed awe.