Parks #5&6: Alkire Lakes Parkland/Alkire Road Parkland - Grove City

Yet another grey miserable day. I was in fact surprised that taking the bus, involving transfers to Grove City was actually not that difficult. This particular area was rather odd. In the stretch of about 4 miles round trip walking from where the bus left me off, I got to see 4 generations of neighborhoods. At first, it was old brick buildings built really close together, followed by 1960s split-level deals with tiny yards and no garages. Soon, it turned into pretty nice places with HUGE backyards (probably the first encroachment on ex-farmland). Finally, we got to the drywall palace type overly big overly new sans tree kinda places. This was Alkire Lakes.

At least the developers had the sense to set aside some land for the little parks. To bad the dang sidewalk ends so abruptly.

It was kinda neat to walk under the shelter and find this declared thusly:

"Faye: Its raining so I'm trapped. Send 4 help"

I for one hope that witch didn't melt.

Meanwhile on the other end of the block, there was a rather quaint lake with a few fisherpeople braving the cool damp conditions in the middle of the afternoon. That reminds me.. I gotta learn to have an umbrella cause if I'm gonna have to walk significant distances from the bus, I'm gonna be soaked like I was that day..

Oh well, on the way back to the bus stop, I got to see this.. And feel free to insert your own joke...

'till next time...

Park #4: Alexander/AEP Park - Columbus

Ahhh, this is more like it after the puny Agler Road Park. Actually, come to think of it, my pal Laura said that its really called "Agler Road Parkway". So I think I may have learned that if its called a "Parkway" or "Parklands", it means its NOT a park (more or that later).

So this is a little place between the Scioto Mile (hmm... I'm doing these in order so I should get to that in about 2015) and North Bank Park. Not too much to it besides being a connection between the two. EXCEPT, its got theses which are in every halfway decent picture of downtown Cowtown...

Seriously, I've pretty much never seen a long distance shot without these being in it. Old school trestle charm (not Tressel charm... we OSU fans kinda got over that).

Kickin' it Red Hot Chili Peppers Style

So all in all, perhaps not an amazing place taken out of context, but when viewed along with its brother and sister parks interconnected along the Scioto from Downtown all the way to OSU and beyond to Worthington, quite a nice piece of real estate.

Park #3: Agler Road Park - Gahanna

A pretty worthless visit. Gahanna is one hell of a haul via bus from where I live and I really rolled snake eyes with this visit. What you see right here is pretty much what it is: a small trail along the road. They weren't even nice enough to grace me with a park sign. Oh well, part of the rules of this adventure is that I never Google earth anything, and I can't look to see where I'm going till I finish the last park.

Turning around to see the other AWESOME perspective!! In actuality, I laughed more than anything. Don't think I'll be camping here anytime soon.

Side note: besides the paper map I use, the only mention of this park I and my friend Ryan could find was a strange internal PDF document listing the % of Gahanna residents who have visited their Gahanna Parks. <1% of them had been here. That was the ONLY reference we could find about this place. Funny!

Oh well, at least The Mug & Jug and The Dolphin Lounge is right down the road...

Next up: Alexander/AEP Park and Alkire Woods Park(s)

Park #2: Academy Park - Columbus

This day was a much finer day for some exploring. The "other" Academy Park was a short while away from where I live and as a result took no time to get to. This was a small athletic complex attached to the slightly more grand Wolfe Park and across the street from the way way WAY more grand Franklin Park Conservatory. Alum Creek, a waterway I shall be seeing a whole ton of splits the parks, and serves as a route for a rather long bike trail.

Located at the entrance to this park was a very old, and rather impressive pedestrian bridge. I need to see if I can dig up some info on this because it would seem unusual for this park to have been around since 1922.

Crossing over this bridge, I was surprised that the Alum Creek was so calm considering all the rain we had had around that time (late April).

Crossing the bridge and heading towards the baseball fields

It was the beginning of warm-ish weather and these kids were doing the ol' roll down the hill on their sides bit. I think If I tried that now, I might break something :/

 

 

Somehow it never rained that day, although it sure looked like it.

 

Couldn't help but wonder if this daycare place down the street paid their copyright fees to use the Sesame Street characters?

Last but certainly not least was this plaque on a bike racing superstar. Well.. he was overseas because in those days America was a less tolerant place. Poor guy died penniless and unknown in his own country..

  We'll, see you at the pathetically small Agler Road Park next time... that post should take about 6 seconds...

Park #1: Academy Park - Gahanna

A pretty typical park along the Big Walnut Creek with your athletic fields, your paved walking trails, your shelters. Met this little guy along the way.

It was a pretty hectic day. I had to be at work at 2pm and along with doing other errands, figuring out how in gods name I would be able to make it out there with all the bus transfers and be on time was a major exorcise in math. Not one of my strong suits. But I did it, and I was on time for work.

A little lesson I learned that day: if one is going to rely on the bus, and the ol' Sole Taxi ie, walking, one should invest in an umbrella. My smart butt, however did not and as a result got soaked. Just pissing rain all day long. As a result of having to make it back on time for the bus, I was a little hurried, so I couldn't explore as much as I wished. But, it is was it it is, and as a start to this strange journey, I thought it went pretty well. Hope you think so too. To be continued...

Somewhere there is a very cold kid...

This guy, repairing a fence was the only soul I saw in the entire park the whole time I was there.

who lives here??

Hats off to Queen City Disco(very)

Hats off to Queen City Disco(very) for inspiring me to start this thing. I'm gonna visit all our parks here, from the tiny pocket parks to the big Metroparks. Armed with a cheap $100 camera it may not be pretty, but it will be fun. Bear with me for a bit while I figure out this thing called a "blog" works.