Looking Back at 2015

As I said in my last post, it's hard to believe that another year has passed.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I was writing a similar post for 2014.  Within a few hours, 2015 will be in the books and 2016 will be beginning.

 I was still doing basketball at the beginning of the year.  With the start of EMU's season, I was expecting them to make waves in the MAC.  It turns out that they didn't make waves in the MAC regular season but they almost made waves in the tournament.  Sadly, the tournament isn't set up for a Cinderella story and they didn't make enough waves.  With that said, they had another 20 win season.  As I am writing this post, I'm going to make a guess that they will have another 20 win season this year.

 The shipping season ended with another season of thick ice.  I was able to witness the efforts to try and free the Herbert C. Jackson from the ice.  It was pretty neat.

 I went to the Auto Show again.  I enjoyed it but you really need to get there fairly early so that you can get shots without people in them.

 It was a particularly nasty winter this year.  We ended up getting a ton of snow.  But I was able to wander a bit.  I got some nice shots of Marblehead.

 Of course I had to make the trek over to the western side of the state to catch lighthouses in the ice.

 The MAC tournament brought me to Cleveland again.

 I decided that I wanted to see something different this year.  yes, I know that I post several pictures of trains on this blog but I've never seen a street running train.  This particular one was in LaGrange, KY.

 Since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to stop in Louisville as well.  I ended up discovering a new canal which means that I might need to find my way back to Louisville.

 Then on the next week, I decided to take a not so well planned trip to Washington DC to see the cherry blossoms.  I did manage to catch a few but I didn't see the bulk of them.

 It was my annual train trip to Chicago.  It was pretty cold though but I got some nice shots of Chicago in the fog.

 One of my trips to the Soo.

 I ended up heading to Muskegon to catch a ship entering the harbor.  I didn't realize it was so foggy but I like the pictures.

 This year found me in another new place.  Ever since I took pictures of the covered bridges in Michigan, I wanted to find a place where I could get more pictures of them.  One of those places was Parke County in Indiana.  It is about 50 miles west of Indianapolis.  I thought it was pretty neat but I wasn't sure of the authenticity of some of them.

 No year would be complete without Engineer's Day at the Soo.

 I found out that the Nickel Plate would be making a move across northern Ohio in order to get to her excursion places for the summer, so I decided to chase her.  I ended up finding some nice train watching places that I need to check out again.

 The Boatnerd cruise was pretty cool and we got pizza delivered by the Westcott.

 The Willow Run Air Show brought us a flying B-29 and this was pretty impressive.

 Of course I did football again.  Eastern's football season sucked to be honest.  They were 1 and 11 but they showed some improvement on offense.  However, defense regressed.

 I also went down to the Cleveland Air Show.  I was able to get a bifecta for a picture.

 While I was researching covered bridges, I also found out that there was a large number of them in Ashtabula County in Ohio.  I decided to head over there and I managed to catch the Blough as she entered Conneaut.

 A recent catch of the Sykes entering Grand Haven.

And the year kind of ended with what will become the annual chasing of the Pere Marquette.  There again, I found some different places for pictures.

Despite not making any major trips, I would say that I ended up doing alot of travelling this year.  I'm not sure what next year will bring but I suspect there is going to be a large train trip in my future.

The McAlpine Lock

I didn't realize that these locks existed and my mom told me about them. 

 The first set of locks appeared here in 1825 and were built as the Louisville and Portland Canal.  They were 190 feet long by 50 feet wide and enabled boats to get around the Falls of Ohio.  They were taken over I 1874 by the Army Corps of Engineers.  Recently they were lengthened to 1,200 feet to serve some of the newer vessels.

 There are a series of locks that enable river traffic to go from Pittsburgh to Cairo on the Mississippi.  A variety of goods are moved but I think the bulk is coal.

 A shot of the control tower.

 One boat leaving the other lock as one enters.

 If only I had a shot of a train in this shot.

 A closer shot of the towboat.

 This lock enables towboats to carry about 1000 feet worth of barges and I'll have to admit this was pretty cool.

 An almost side shot of the towboat.

 The pilothouse.

 A shot of the towboat as it leaves the lock.  This is a pretty typical configuration of towboats that ply the Ohio River.

 This shows some of the flood heights over the years.

I believe this boat used to be used to service the locks.

A Stop in Louisville

Louisville was about 20 miles to the southwest of La Grange.  Since I've never been there before, I decided to head down that way.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

 As I was looking for a spot to get a good skyline shot of the city, I saw this train crossing one of the bridges that crosses the Ohio River.  It turns out that it was the same train that I saw in Cincinnati and La Grange.  I think it was stalking me.

 But I will admit that it was pretty cool to see the same train in three different towns.

 And it crossed the bridge.

 Louisville is the largest city in Kentucky and the 28th largest city in the country.  It is located at the Falls of Ohio because that made for a stopping point for people travelling by river.  The first European settlement was formed on Corn Island by Col. George Rogers Clark in 1778.  This picture was taken from Clarksville, IN.

 Louisville itself was named after King Louis XVI of France.

 More of a shot of the rail bridge.  Louisville is a fairly major hub for railroads.

 This used to be the site of the Colgate-Palmolive Plant in Clarksville, IN.  Clarksville is famous for being the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1803.  That particular Clark was the younger brother of the Colonel.  The clock first served at the Colgate Headquarters in 1906 and was moved here in 1924.  Prior to being owned by Colgate, this served as an Indiana Prison.  The factory was closed in 2008 and is being redeveloped.

 The Humana Building is the 4th tallest building in Louisville and was built in 1985.  It is 427 feet tall.

 Looking down one of the streets.

Looking up at the National City Tower.

 Louisville serves as one of the hubs for UPS.

 The 400 West Market Building is the tallest in Louisville.  It was built in 1993 and is 549 feet tall. 

 I like the mix between the older buildings and newer buildings.

 Looking down another street.

This is the National City Tower.

Another pretty cool looking building.

I think there was a plane about every 10 minutes or so.

This street looked pretty nice.

Currently this serves as the Old Spaghetti Factory, I didn't go to look at the sign in front.  But it is a pretty cool looking building.

Another cool old building.

Another view of the 400 West Market Building.

Looking down another street.

Another plane.

A statue of Colonel George Rogers Clark.  He was the highest ranking officer in the American Northwest during the Revolutionary War.  He was the leader of the Kentucky Militia during that war and was famous for victories during the Illinois campaign.  After the war, he led some of the militias against the Native Americans but was found drunk on duty.  Drummed out of the service, he lived out his life in the Indiana territory.  His younger brother would go on to fame as part of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

A head on shot of a 767.

A closeup of Clark's face.  He was also credited with the founding of Louisvill.

I kind of liked this view.

The park with the statue.

A replica of the David statue.

I have no idea what this is supposed to be.

Looking towards the Louisville Slugger factory (I think).

One more view of the Louisville skyline.