Sunday, August 03, 2014

A Suburban Afternoon in the WVL

Sometimes my friends give me static because of my staid suburban life. I don't live in the hip areas of OTE or in the neoUrban areas around the Short North and [insert your favorite ethnic] Village. Nope, I live faaaaar away from the heart of it all in the northern suburb of Westerville. And what is exciting about that?

Well, HERE'S what is exciting about that . . .

After church today, I gathered up some of the kids and we set out to do something that I've been dreaming about accomplishing for months and months and months. We crossed the brand new bike/pedestrian bridge that spans County Line Road. I've been watching the construction of this bridge for so long and once the actual span was set above the road in May, I've really been hopeful. But still the construction drug on, ensuring safety and beautification and all that sort of thing. But on Friday, the ribbon cutting was done. And while I didn't fulfill my dream of being the first civilian to bike across the road, I did manage to enjoy my time walking up the bike patch to it this afternoon with Sarah and Hannah and standing up above the road and cars drove underneath.

It was a nice day--as so many nice days have been this summer. And we enjoyed our walk down the bike path, from over near Emerson school, through and behind industrial buildings and residential houses. And as we got closer to the bridge; as the bike path began to rise upward, my excitement mounted. Surely this was JUST as much fun as riding the Ferris wheel at the Ohio State fair? Surely nothing else that I might choose to do today could match this level of excitement.

So, yeah . . . we made it to the top of the bridge and I stood right above the double yellow line of the road. And I exulted in my achievement. And I wasn't the only one to realize the impact of the moment. As we walked, more and more bikers approached the span. And I knew from their shining eyes that they were also feeling the glory of the moment. And even when we were up there, other families stopped to see the achievement that we had all accomplished.

The Official Hat of Summer achieved another milestone today, high atop County Line Road.
After Sarah and Hannah and I calmed down from that achievement, we went over to the library and Hannah played a bit on the playground there. Sarah and I chatted about high school and stuff. It was good. After we got home, I finished reading American Gods and maybe I'll start reading Anansi Boys later tonight.

***

While I was walking around, I thought that if I had skill, I should have taken the opportunity to make a Thoughts from Places video about walking along the bike path and what I saw there. But I don't (yet) have the video making skills to make that happen. So I just took some photos and promised myself that I would sit down and blog a bit about it instead.

Some of the better images I decided not to wait on and threw them up on my Facebook page this afternoon.



And so then I saw some other things that were interesting during the rest of the day. Like these tree stump remnants that were growing in and amongst parts of a chain link fence. It probably would have been cooler if the tree itself was still there, but even so seeing these bits of tree suspended in the fence still kind of neat.


And after all of that, I came home and then we decided to order some pizza for dinner. And the girls wanted to try out Dough Boys Pizza in Uptown, a place we haven't been to before. So I drove over there and waited outside while they made the order.

The view was nice and the day continued to be great. Even though the pizza itself wasn't the best one I've ever had, I enjoyed the opportunity to try something new, support local people, and stretch out just a bit in a new direction.

Maybe I left just a little bit of my boring routine on the top of that bridge this afternoon? We can only hope so.

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