Park #30: Bank One Greenway - Westerville

   This is not really a park, per say, but a path along Alum Creek that connects Alum Creek Park South and Alum Creek Park (north), and Astronaut Grove in Westerville. These photos were outtakes from those parks posts as I realized later that I had already been to Bank One Greenway although the paved bike hike trail had not been marked as such. These were taken roughly at the end of Summer last year which is why you'll see a funky picture of me on the bike in shorts. Its obvious that Westervillians love this trail in good weather, as it was pretty busy on this Saturday afternoon I was there. It was also obvious to me that Westerville's former reputation as "The Dry Capitol of the World" was still somewhat in effect as many of the gas stations where I attempted to buy a 40oz didn't sell beer at all, and Kroger seemed to only sell 6packs.

   The cool thing about this trail is the outsider art style things attached to many of the telephone poles by Alum Creek. I never did find out the story behind them.

 

This makes me want to go swimming, ice skating, boating, wading, fishing AND other!

YOURS TRULY, with out of alignment handlebars from when a car clipped me a few days previous :/

Park #25 - Astronaut Grove - Westerville

    This place was kinda a mind-blower. As usual, I never look up any park in advance before going there, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I figured it would be another boring pocket park off of an Astronaut Street or something like that. Instead it was a lovely little place across from Alum Creek Park North. The park was dedicated to the Astronauts lost in the Apollo 1 & Challenger disasters. I first learned of Virgil "Gus" Grissom in the classic film The Right Stuff which documents the original Mercury 7 astronauts. Gus, along with Roger Chaffee and Ed White perished when the Apollo 1 capsule burst onto flames on the launch pad due to a spark igniting the pure oxygen they were breathing. Poor old Gus never got to rebuild his reputation after losing his Mercury capsule upon the controversial splashdown recovery effort.

    If you're of my generation, I really don't need to explain anything about the Challenger incident.

    I got unexpectedly emotional visiting this place, as the Walsh family has a history of Air Force service, and any loss due to flight tends to kinda get me worked up. Anyway, this was a really tidy, well landscaped place that I would highly recommend for a few moments of introspection.

 

Go get 'em, Gus!

Each Challenger astronaut had a tree planted for them. Unfortunately the spring storms of '12 (100MPH winds) knocked down/destroyed a couple of them.

Quite a nice sculpture.

Westerville should be proud of their parks.

This is not a very big space, but I wonder if they would have room for a memorial to the Columbia astronauts?

Park #11: Alum Creek Park South - Westerville

   Ahhh, this is more like it. There are several parks all along the Alum Creek. This one was not too far from Otterbein College in picturesque Westerville. One of the neat things, or limitations, about my strategy for doing this blog is that I don't read up on anything about the parks before I get there. No Google Earth, no Columbus MetroParks website. This keeps things interesting.

Bonus: I was rockin' my Jerry Garcia 1942-1995 T-shirt and some guy, totally business-man looking stops chatting into his cell as he's passing me about here and is all "killer shirt man."

 

    So, having said that, it was nice to stumble on this BMX/skate park being enjoyed by some of the local kids. I used to go to a place in Hamilton/Fairfield Ohio called Joyce Park that had a BMX track. My 12 year old self realized I didn't have all the talent I thought I did with my beloved Mongoose FS-1 bike. Still had a blast though, and an acquaintance I met let my try out his titanium bike. Man, it was quite a difference. 

I think I broke at least 6 of the rules getting these. Walking on the track? Check. Smoking a cig? Check. etc.

 

 

   This was one of the early hot days of late spring so I didn't stick around too long because of that, and also because I didn't have too much time before I had to grab the COTA bus back home. Westerville is a hell of a long way to Olde Town East if you've missed the bus. This was a Saturday, so the bus which runs limited hours out there anyway was even more limited.

 

BTW, is it Alum Creek Park South, or...

Alum Creek South Park???

    I kinda wanted to chat with these kids so I could've gotten some great close-up shots of them doing their thing, but they probably would've looked at me like I was from Mars. Oh well, like I said, I had limited time, and I have 300 more parks to get some good stuff.

 

560 Olly dude

   All in all a nice spacious park in the linked up Alum Creek trail. Just a bit north of here was Alum Creek Park North, which is coming soon...

Park #10: Alum Creek Park North - Westerville

The sister park to Alum Creek Park South, separated by the quite extensive Alum Creek Trail which runs from Alum Creek State Park North of the 270 outer belt all the way to my neck of the woods in Olde Towne East. Along the creek were several of these cute artsy things on the telephone poles.

Rawr

For running thru some of Columbus' most busy parts of town, Alum Creek is quite the serene oasis.

This smallish park along the Main Drag in Westerville was quite nice. It was just a short walk away from Otterbein College (home of the fighting Methodist Cardinals. Go Cards!!).

Although it looked like a nice creek, hell if I woulda waded in it or eaten anything caught there!

I need to figure out what kind of events they hold here as it was pretty sweet to stumble onto this. I feel a repeat trip coming on.

 

As Alice says, "School's Out For Ever!"

After looking up this park's Amphitheater, it looks like they hold concerts there under the title of Sounds of Summer Concert Series. Big Bands & cover bands, all free, and the community is welcome to bring lawn chairs & coolers. All in all, both the Alum Creek Parks combined with the adjoining trail and a concert would be a great way to laze away a nice Sunday Afternoon. Well worth checking out along with adjacent Westerville, OH. http://www.visitwesterville.org/calendar.html for a calendar of events.