A Cruise Around Town

The cruise around town was on Saturday morning but let's backup a little to Friday night. When I bought the couch and love seat they assured me with labels and company literature, they were "pet proof".  I couldn't keep from remembering what 16 years of hounds did to a leather couch I had in the older house up north. So the hounds and the dog remembered the new rules once we moved to Arizona, no pets on the couch. They have followed the rule after I bought the new furniture for the great room and have stayed off ... until I invited Watson up there.

Before the rains came last night and this morning, I wanted to take photos of my finished work on Friday night after I mowed the lawn inside and outside of the fence. I was tempted to fire up the grill for a ribeye steak but decided to see what the Niji Foodi would do to it. It was good, it cooked fast but I still prefer the taste of a steak from the grill. That lighter spot on the deck reminds me at all times I need to pull the power washer out and high pressure wash the deck. 

The neighbor cuts her law slightly lower than I do mine but it blends in well to where you cannot tell a difference from a distance. 

Henry seems to enjoy life more not being tethered in the backyard.

It's not that Watson isn't tall enough to get up on the deck, this is what happens when he doesn't judge his jump right and hits the deck about chest high, falling short of the deck surface.

He loves to track the fenced in boundary.

"This cannon was used in the civil war on the steamer Charley Bowen by Captain Dexter"

A warning to some new readers, I am not a tourist. I have never found it easy to slow down, walk and enjoy the sights, study what I see and take photos. I rush through things unintended. So there is not enough photos and they do jump around. Add in the fact that I was some what lost even with the iPhone map showing me where I was. 

This cruise around town was nothing close to what I expected. It was not as detailed, a lot less to take photos and didn't last long. 

"We Have Come To Stay"

My disorganization this morning started about a mile away from the driveway when I grabbed my Nikon and saw the small door flap open letting me know that I forgot to move the SD card from my computer to the camera before leaving. Instead of turning around to get that SD card, I decided to use my iPhone camera.

Still confused, I thought I was taking a photo of the Museum but this was the Visitor Center. I turned as the signed said but when I made the right turn after that I was headed to the Visitor Center. I needed to turn left after that right hand turn to get to the museum. The place had not opened up yet.

This is the Ohio River but not what I expected. It's too clean, too smooth and not as wide as I expected. I find out that all the sights are to the right of me. I had driven through the best beach area not knowing where I was.

I was wanting to get to where those cars are but I must have missed the turn. Instead I drove right in front of those buildings you see, traveling further to the right.

This is part of the bike path that I did not ride last month. My friend and I made a right turn that day when we rode the bike path following Pigeon Creek. If I turn left at that point in the bike path, it will take me to his downtown. This path goes for miles and as you will see in a few photos, there is a road I can turn on from the path and ride as far as I want. There does not seem to be a lot of activity for a Saturday morning.

Evansville has a lot of nice old buildings, houses and churches. I don't have the patience to drive all over town taking photos of those buildings, houses and churches. I have never felt comfortable taking photos of people's houses to post on my blog. I would love to take some in the residential area on the roads through town and in the west part where I live but don't because I feel that is an intrusion on their privacy.

I looked at Apple maps and decided to drive further to see what I thought would be more waterfront of the Ohio River. I was wrong again and obviously do not have a clue where I am going or where I am at. I wasn't a mile out of the city (pop. 120K) and it looks like I am already in the country.

For those that are wondering ... I stopped the car to take these photos.

This is Main St., 10mph, all red brick.

Evansville is a city of museums. Click here to see the different choices. That WWII plane is from the Evansville Wartime Museum. From the picture I saw in the newspaper the other day I think it might be possible to take a ride in that plane when you are visiting the museum.

Strange to see plenty of parking available for a Saturday morning. I pulled into a spot along the curb.

Vanderburgh County Court House.

I wanted to see more of the city but like I said I have never been the tourist type and I was wanting to head toward home. Not before of taking a little drive out west of my house to show you where I plan to go on my bike rides. This four lane highway is just a few miles from my house and I will cross this to get out into the farm land.

It is nice and flat and goes forever toward the west. To get to these flat roads from my house, I will be riding up and down a lot of hills on a narrow road with no shoulder, yet bike ridable. It is the short steep hills that will be hard to and from the house.

Notice all that beautiful farm land and there are miles of it to see. Well on my trip to the vet 18 miles west of me, through farm country I see a lot of those signs "No Industrial Solar Power Plants". I had a pretty good idea what they were talking about but I needed to do an internet search to confirm I was right.

I would prefer to see land as far as I can see like the photo above. I have seen those solar plants out in the middle of the country and they look like crap. Just like the wind farms ashore or in the water. I can see using solar but only when those panels are mounted on buildings or RVs that are already there. I don't like seeing farmland sold by the thousands of acres to have solar panels on 12' poles only to find out that the local small town utility companies have no intentions of buying the energy those plants produce. So I agree with all the signs I have seen saying "No Industrial Solar Power Plants".

After our Saturday afternoon siesta we went outside to spend some time in the sunshine. It was beautiful outside and not bad in the heat department. Warm but cool enough to where we could stay outside. The thing was, there was smell of rain in the air and I knew it was to rain with severe thunderstorms later tonight. As I walked in to check the radar on weatherbug app, the world outside changed drastically.

Of course Henry and I had to argue about coming inside before it started to rain. He didn't budge. 

I didn't realize until a few minutes later he was waiting for Watson to come back around the corner from the outside water bowl.

I could tell that Walter was agreeing with my assessment and he went running up the step and headed for his bedroom. It wasn't a minute after this photo was taken, it started pouring rain.

Off into the distance I could hear a siren. I know that is a weather warning but didn't know for what type, storms or tornadoes. I have not been getting any notifications about tornadoes. I guess attending the Evansville Otters baseball game is out of the question tonight. It looks like we are to get 1"-2" of rain with this rain session. My other neighbor on the right side of me told me earlier today that her rain gauge showed 1" just last night.

So I am going to post this now just in case the power might flicker later on.

Roller thunder and storms here in "the tropics" of southern Indiana late this afternoon.