Sunrise 93: Ault Park & Lunken Airfield (Sunrise Resurrection, B-17 “Aluminum Overcast” Bomber)

Sunrise 93, you pretty thang.

The “Aluminum Overcast” B-17 bomber! For $400, you can take her for a ride. She flew in from Wisconsin to help Lunken Airfield celebrate their Lunken Days.

In the arboretum, someone left a small glass container. I really like this picture.

I’ve never seen a plant that has a fruit hanging out of the flower like this. Weird?

After what has felt like a season of hibernation, even though it’s only been about a week, I was finally *blessed* with both a beautiful sunrise AND a free Sunday morning to enjoy it. The left overs from Hurricane Irene have cleared up and are now history. The forecast originally put clear skies with “fog” for tomorrow morning, but I wanted to test my luck and see if I could catch a break a day early. As it turned out, luck was on my side and the sunrise came through with a deep moisture-induced pink. I ended up taking my time and riding through the East End Loop down to Lunken Airfield and back. This weekend is Lunken Airport’s “Lunken Days” featuring the “Aluminum Overcast” B-17 bomber, one of only 10 in the country that are still flying today. As anyone in the midwest will tell you, we ended up with a beautiful late summer day.

These first two pictures were taken in the neighborhoods of Mt. Lookout on the way to Ault Park. I am trying to convey the degree of incline that these roads have, something that I didn’t notice (very thoroughly) until I started biking them.

We can see the road drop off about 60 yards away. A worthy climb indeed. I always catch this hill at the beginning of the ride so it always seems worse than it really is.

Heading into Ault Park! At this point I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a sunrise at all. I got excited when I saw the colors over the hill, to say the least.

I arrived at the overlook just as the sun was cresting. The humidity and light fog in the air made the scattering light a deep pink color. This is a pretty unique sunrise for the summer season. I haven’t seen many deep pink hazy sunrises since the spring, and this spring was full of them.

Heekin Overlook against the early sunrise.

Steel Frame Sunrise.

I love the color gradient in this picture. Taken from the lower overlook, I think.

37 pictures total!  Click “continue” if you’re on the front page, homie.

Meanwhile, the western Lunken Airfield view is gray and foggy.

From the lower overlook, looking out over the Little Miami River Basin.

These 4 trees keep it real out in front of the overlook.

(Widescreen Version)

The pink sunrise and the blue sky breaking.

Lots of things going on in the atmosphere this morning. You’d think it was April with weather patterns like this!

I was contemplating dropping down into Armleder Park into the fog, but I ended up getting distracted in the Arboretum. In the end I skipped Armleder and went straight to Lunken Airfield.

The blue skies above the pavilion.

Playing around with macro.

The texture is part glass, part dew.

This reminds me of “Irish Spring” soap. More color gradients, this time a very organic green into a gray.

Today is the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2011. There were American flags placed all around the arboretum.

A quick picture of a bumblebee. The out-of-focus nature of the picture makes his slurpin’ tongue look even weirder than normal.

See what I mean? The fruit is hanging *out* of the flower… and the flower doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Normally you see flowers get pollinated, and then they fall away and turn into fruit. Not in this case.

American Flags in the Old Rose Garden.

Heading out of the park, down the mountain… into the fog.

I really do love this stone pedestrian walkway over the rail track. You can see that the vines from a home in disrepair are literally crawling through the openings in the stone to get to the manicured lawn that sits to my right.

Behind Lunken Airfield there is always a Farmer’s Market on the weekends. These two vendors are the first to set up under the beautiful blue sky.

Looking out at Lunken Airfield. It is still kind of dark with the sun behind the clouds, but there is a nice layer of fog and a changing sky.

The Lunken Loop bike path.

A long stretch down the path. At this point I realize I’ve accidentally left my thermos back at the bench, so I turn around and rescue her.

The rear of Lunken Terminal, getting set up for the festival.

B-17 and Firetruck. I spoke with a retired Aerospace Engineer about the B-17 and the technology arms race that WW-II spun off. He said that some of the guys who work on these B-17s are original mechanics that used to work on the plane during the war effort! Each one has a unique personality and most of the parts aren’t even made any more. I imagine that it would be like taking care of a horse. There is also a set of young mechanics who work on these planes, and they have to absorb everything that they can while the old timers are still around! But isn’t that life?

On my way back to Mt. Lookout, I stopped by a small cul-de-sac and found a deer duo hanging out in the bushes.

I was really surprised to find that at the end of this small no-outlet there is a view of the tip-top of the Cincinnati Skyline. It’s a strange orientation, because we’re looking into the hills of Kentucky with the Ohio River in the foreground. The “Bend in the River” takes the river to the right and then back around to the left, and we can see the top of Carew Tower and the newly built Great American Insurance building.

Hard to tell, but directly in the center just above the Kentucky treeline (we’re in Ohio, remember!) you can see the white “tiara” on the Great American Insurance Building, with Carew Tower’s yellow/orange deco brick to the right.