Went To See The Ohio River

It was such a nice day at 54° that I had to get out of the house. I grabbed my camera, and headed out west right after the hounds and dogs finished their lunch. I left the patio door open just enough for them to go outside and inside as they needed or wanted to.

I wanted to check out a couple of things before I started riding my bike in this area of flat farmland. Would the building that was sold last fall be occupied? I use to park my car in the lot of the vacant building. It. was good to see as I drove in front of it, it was no longer for sale but it was vacant.

I also wanted to take a photo of the FJ I bought last fall. I always take a photo of each one I buy in this same spot. This is a 2010 FJ Cruiser, a Trail Teams model. They only made 1500 of that model in 2010. Basically that has all the upgrades I would always do to the past FJ's I bought. 

I turned around and took this. I ride down that road also and where you see the end of the road it curves left and the steep hills begin. Major hills that take an all out effort to get to the top of them. I look forward to see the differences between last year and this year since the additions my heart got last June. It seems to be doing pretty good while I ride my bike inside during the cold weather months.

These kind of farms are scattered all over this area. Mostly corn and soybeans are the crop of choice.

When headed back towards the edge of town I wanted to drive on the construction part of what use to be a perfect four lane road that comes from the west and across town for about 10 miles. They have completed the construction on the side I am on. It took them almost 16 months to finish that when they said it would take 12. Now they are rebuilding the right side, for another 12 months to go, maybe more.

For some reason it looks like the new road will be quite a bit lower then the original highway since all four lanes and turning lanes were the same level. They are installing new water lines, new gas lines, new sewer lines at the same time. Up ahead is a new four lane bridge but the starting point in all of this destruction of a perfectly good road, was a transportation study.

Evidently the figureheads found out there were 12% less accidents when using a displaced left turn lane instead of intersections where the left turning lane cuts in front of the stopped oncoming traffic to make their left turn. So on the major intersections in the eastern part of the city they are building "Displaced Left Turn Lanes". That link can show you better than I can describe what they are and how they work. But in the meantime let's reconstruct close to 20 miles of four lane highway for just four of those displaced left turn lane intersections. 

I wasn't going to the most picturesque part of the downtown river front. I was going to the parking lot where I park to ride my bike on the 11-15 miles bike path, distance depending if I ride downtown and back to this point before heading out on the bike path. 

I am parked at the Gateway Plaza and will walk over on to the Joan Marchand Bridge, where I took the river photos. 

This parking lot would put me walking distance to the Port of Evansville to take my few photos of the Ohio River. Mainly I wanted to get outside, take some photos and enjoy the weather.

That is the direction I normally ride my bike to start the 11 mile path. Today I was going to turn around and head the opposite direction. 

You can see the tall building of this small city from where I stand, yet this is within a mile or two of downtown.

Are they mining all of that dirt and gravel from the river bottom? There is a large crane that for some reason I didn't get a photo of, out in the water, and that makes me think that is where all these huge piles of gravel, sand etc come from.

I have ridden my bike this way and turned around at the point where the bridge ends. 

Today there was a slow train on the other bridge. While I walked to and from the end of the bridge on the left, they had pulled forward far enough to backup and attached a lot longer row of railcars. That added to the 20 some cars they were hauling.

Wood planks make for some interesting surface for bike riding to the end of the bridge. 

That's the mighty Ohio River looking westward. Until today, almost every time I have stood in this same place there will be one to two river barges out in the center of the river heading in either direction. 

Looking back eastward towards downtown. I didn't feel like going downtown today and that is really where the best photos of the Ohio River can be taken. 

Looking straight across from where I am standing. That land straight ahead is inside the Kentucky state line, which is actually closer to the beach side that I am on, than the land you see. 

A great place to sit and watch boats on the river on a warm summer day. Large motor boats are popular here. 

That is our water treatment center. I guess you could say that I will never run out of running water at home living here. 

Old steel bridges have always amazed me. I wonder how long ago they were built and to think that bridge holds daily train traffic with a long line of freight cars. 

A better view of those piles of gravel, sand, dirt, etc.

On those tall wired displays, are stories describing over a 100 years of history of this exact area which is only a small part of the Port of Evansville. In the next day or two I will post those templates telling the history.

They are forecasting winter weather again next week but when I look at my weather apps for this area it looks like that winter weather is all in central Indiana and 100+ miles away from my high temps of 50s and 60s next week. It sure is nice to feel semi warm again.

These were mounted on the bridge. 

A bright sunny day here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.