Columbus – July 2019 – The Last of Roadside America for This Town

Art, Nature

Those who regularly follow this blog know that the website Roadside America is one of my favorite sources for the strange and unusual. A few years ago we visited most of the Roadside America attractions for Columbus and detailed them in this post

https://rdzphotographyblog.com/2017/01/10/columbus-march-2015-roadside-america-attractions/

Today we finished off the last few, starting with a giant boot outside the LL Bean store.



A pet cemetery from the 1930s – 1960s – you can Googles it (I know really bad pun). Supposedly there are a few military dogs there, but it is large and we were unable to locate them.









A very colorful Buddhist temple in an otherwise nondescript housing neighborhood.



Large cowboy #1



And his twin just down the street – large cowboy #2.



And for the grand finale – the Gates of Hell – otherwise known as a large drainage pipe under High Street, complete with urban legends of hauntings.

While we haven’t seen all of America, we have now seen all of Columbus!










Cleveland – July 2019 – The Garden Walk

Architecture, Art, Festival, History, Nature

A beautiful Saturday afternoon was the perfect time to go for a walk around the neighborhood. Only in this case we chose to go to the ‘Detroit Shoreway’ neighborhood in Cleveland for our walk.

Why – because this neighborhood, and many others in Cleveland, were participating in ‘GardenWalk Cleveland 2019’. We were fortunate enough to meet one of the founders of Cleveland’s, who said they go the idea from Buffalo, New York’s.

The Detroit Shoreway neighborhood is named so from Detroit Avenue, which is the original road from Cleveland to Detroit, and it is located along Lake Erie. Most of the homes in the neighborhood are over 100 years old, with many being exquisitely restored.

For the Garden Walk there were over 80 gardens to see, each with their own unique interpretation! Each had a sign indicating they were participating in the walk, and to guide us to which part of the yard was open (front, side, back)
































































Looking for Something to Do

Uncategorized

After hundreds of posts I have realized that it is at times difficult to find information about a particular location. I have attempted to simplify that by creating a Google Map with pins for all of the information in all of the posts.

A post might have multiple pins if different venues were featured. In some cases a single pin will have multiple posts as I have revisited many locations and featured them more than once.

There are pins throughout the US and Canada, as well as a a few in Europe, India and Argentina.

The link for the map is https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?hl=en&mid=1Gb2Bta7cEq6SFkZpEDN9uni6uBjwANsR&ll=18.50690923595228%2C-108.85707795000002&z=4

Below is a screen shot of the map


Different browser behave differently when a pin is selected. In Chrome it brings up something similar to:

If you select the link it will bring up the posting.

IE brings up a different look. It has the link to the posting but includes additional links to photos off of Google as well. Other browsers may function altogether differently.

Good luck and happy travels.

Columbus – July 2019 – Chihuly Glass Sculptures Exhibit

Art, Festival, Nature

In the world of blown glass nobody is better than Dale Chihuly. For more than 50 years he has turned out the most impressive glass pieces around.

The Franklin Park Botanical Gardens has always had a number of Chihuly pieces, but for the next few months they have expanded their collection to be the largest Chihuly collection in a botanical garden anywhere. Entitled Chihuly: Celebrating Nature, it blends nicely with the gardens.














































Union County, Ohio – July 2019 – Covered Bridge Tour + 1

Architecture, Art, History, Nature, Transportation

Union County, Ohio has a number of covered bridges. Unlike most counties, not all of them are vintage, with 3 of them being built in the last 20 years. Still they have character, so it was worth riding around the countryside for a couple of hours checking them out.



























The one non covered bridge was, in my opinion, the best. The Streng Road Bridge was built in 1914 with steel trusses. It replaced a covered bridge that was destroyed in the 1913 flood.

All of the original ornamentation and decorative elements are still in place. So highly thought of it is the only non covered bridge to be listed as an Ohio Historic Bridge (which is amazing as there are literally hundreds of cool old bridges throughout the state).










Marysville, Ohio – July 2019 – Music Machines

Art, History, Sciences

For more than 60 years Dave Ramey has been one of the best in the country in restoring old music machines. These mechanical devices date from the early 1900s, and feature a number of instruments including pianos, banjos, drums and others.

Dave’s business has been located in Marysville, Ohio for more than 10 years. In an effort to encourage people to check out downtown Marysville, they have placed the machines in a number of the small shops. All you have to do is show up, use one of the free nickels, and get a song from a cool machine.