WESTERN KENTON COUNTY, KY
Aug. 7 2008
Ever get so worn out that you get chills even though it's 90° F? That's what this event was like. This probably surpassed the May 2008 Campbell County outing as the most strenuous Roads Scholaring ever. Remember, this was with the Peace Bike, so motor vehicles were not used.
The local Neighborhood Watch is now being monitored on camera by the Eyewitness Cam. It's more of my countersurveillance. Try it! You'll like it! Anyhow, this is north on Neave Street in Covington at 15th.
West on 15th as it goes over the north-south rail line. This bridge is largely forgotten, but it hadn't been closed to auto traffic for more than a few months when I took this photo.
The surface of the 15th Street bridge.
Southwest on Highland Avenue in Covington, near Franklin Street. Highland got to be extremely steep going uphill past here!
Looking up Benton Road from Highland. I guess this is where Quarry Street once was. Benton intersects 19th at the deer crossing sign.
Yep, this really looks like I-75 to me. This is where Highland Avenue enters Fort Wright, a Leave It To Beaver-like suburb. This view is from the junction with Henry Clay Avenue. For years around 1980, I remember Highland being closed.
Dixie Highway (US 25/42/127) meets Kyles Lane (KY 1072) in Fort Wright. This part of Fort Wright was once a separate municipality called Lookout Heights. This pic shows what an inefficient intersection this is: You can't cross US 25 at all on foot.
South on Kyles Lane at Farrell Drive. Kyles Lane here is KY 3187. This area features a gulag, which is dotted with NO THRU TRAFFIC signs - which I ignored. (How else is one supposed to efficiently travel from one place to another?)
In the town of Fort Mitchell, this graffiti-covered wall used to be a pier for a streetcar line that was dismantled in the 1950s. This is along St. Johns Road, which runs off US 25. Old maps show that St. Johns Road once connected with a road of the same name off Bromley-Crescent Springs Road, but the connecting stretch is probably now overgrown.
North on Beechwood Road in Fort Mitchell, nearing where it goes under I-75. Not much to say about this.
Continuing on Beechwood, where it crosses into Crescent Springs. This is at a railroad crossing as a train was zipping southwest.
Northeast on the rail line from Beechwood Road. This is heading towards Ludlow, the Cincinnati Southern Bridge, and Cincinnati.
Northeast back into Fort Mitchell on Bromley-Cresecent Springs Road. This, as you may know, is the thoroughfare where I was once run off the road by an SUV. And I guarantee you that 35 MPH speed limit didn't slow them down. In fact, I think the limit was 20 MPH where the attack occurred, and they were doing at least 45.
Crescent Springs has a footbridge over the rail line south of Anderson Road. The span is off Anderson near Scott Street and runs to a parking lot at the end of Old Buttermilk Pike. From the bridge, this is east on the rail line. The overpass up ahead carries KY 371, the current Buttermilk Pike.
This is the surface of the Crescent Springs footbridge, which is dotted with graffiti (much of it offensive). In the background you see Anderson Road. This spot is at the historic heart of Crescent Springs.
From the footbridge, this is southwest on Anderson, at Western Reserve Road. Although this route is KY 2373, it is signed very sporadically.
West on Eubanks Road in Crescent Springs. You have to assume roads like this are endangered by development.
Anderson Road becomes Crescent Springs Pike. This is going south under I-75 in Erlanger. Although the marker shows this is KY 2373, that designation ends only 600 feet past here.
This field is along Crescent Springs Pike between KY 3076 (the Dolwick Drive extension of 2004) and I-75. KY 3076 is in the background. I knew this field was endangered because of all the real estate signs.
A video of Crescent Springs Pike as it goes southwest over I-275 in Erlanger.
Northwest on KY 236 in Erlanger - known as Commonwealth Avenue. This is just northwest of I-75, approaching KY 842. KY 236 was once KY 442 and was built in the 1940s for access to the international airport.
The end of Holly Lane in Erlanger - the unsigned KY 3235. I'd heard there was a forgotten historic bridge up here, but I couldn't find any spans that appeared old.
A true Erlanger landmark that I've always enjoyed! This is northeast on US 25 (Dixie Highway) as it goes under a distinctive rail overpass (for the same rail line that runs through Crescent Springs and to the Cincinnati Southern Bridge).
A video of the Peace Bike traveling northeast on US 25 through Park Hills into Covington - around a notoriously dangerous curve. This 8-minute clip is downhill throughout. If you have 8 minutes of a continuous downhill ride on a bike, think how hard it was to go uphill!