Sunrise 111: Meadow Lake Wind Farm, Indiana
Sunrise 111 @ Meadow Lake Wind Farm!
My wife and I had a wedding to go to in Chicago, IL. We left early Friday morning from Cincy and finally got home last night. It was a fun and busy weekend and it’s always fun visiting Chicago and checking out the architecture. We left around 5:20am on Friday morning which put us in the middle of Indiana at sunrise. Amanda ended up driving the first leg, leaving me to sleep like a baby for the first couple hours of the trip. She woke me up at sunrise upon my request where we switched off in a rest stop. The sunrise came up over the cornfields of Indiana and it had this bright pink color palette that was really surprising. It was a quick sunrise and my vantage point wasn’t the greatest, but I took the picture and decided that it’d make for a nice and quick Sunrise 111 post.
As I continued driving up I-65 towards Chicago through the patches of fog and mist with the sunrise to my right, we entered the newly constructed Meadow Lake Wind Farm area. I remember driving through this wind farm last year for the first time and it is seriously a sight to see. I think it is actually a combination of several wind farms at this point because there are turbines that stretch out beyond the horizon in all directions. Even Google Maps doesn’t have any of the turbines pictured in their satellite photos because they didn’t go into operation until 2009 and most of Google’s satellite data seems to be from 2007-2008. Here’s an article from Urban Indy where they went exploring around the country roads to get some more information about the wind farm.
I pulled over and parked at one of the only exist along the highway. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect and we didn’t even plan it this way! If there is any stretch along the drive to Chicago that I’d want to see the sunrise from, it is definitely this spot in the middle of the wind farm!
The turbines rose up out of the mist into the morning sky and it was an eerie sight because they were not moving. There was no wind to speak of, so the turbines just stood there towering over the flat midwest cornfields. They tend to inspire a feeling of awe as well as make me a bit freaked out. They’re beautiful machines to be sure, but seeing hundreds of them spaced out in all directions definitely makes me think thoughts of mankind being dominated by giant machines :). I realized that I’ve never looked at them the same after this xkcd strip that relates them to the machines from War of the Worlds. Hah.
The pink sunrise from a rest stop near exit 193 on I-65 in Indiana! It made me thankful for the vantage point I have in Ault Park. The glaciers left us some flat fertile farmlands in the midwest, but it can be hard to get a decent view of the countryside! That is, of course, unless you can find a patch of farmland that was cleared at the turn of the century before it was common to save large patches of forest. The wind farm exists in an area like this and it is really incredible how far you can see without any forests or trees obstructing the view.
Picture #1 from the moving car before I found a place to pull over. It’s kind of creepy, no?
Picture #2 from the car with motion blur! 🙂
The mist adds an eerie dimension to the farmland.
There are so many turbines. This is just on this side of the highway, the western side is just as dense!
These are built by GE and rise up 300 feet into the air.
Wind Power!
Turbines stretching off into the distance.
The sun has come out from behind the clouds and is now starting to get bright.
A final picture of the nearest turbine. Thanks for reading!
Sunrise 90: Ault Park (Cool Overcast, Metamora Indiana)
Quiet Summer Sunrise
The sunrise this morning was overcast, quiet, and dark. There was a bit of orange display happening just above the horizon and the sun poked through a hole for about a minute before rising up into the clouds. There were many patches of sky along the horizon that provided some excellent lighting scenes, but they were impossible to capture on the camera.
Overcast with a small hole above the horizon
Great Ohio Bike Adventure, 2011. This was left behind and now that I see it is a decade old, I regret not picking it up and leaving a note. Hopefully the person who left it remembers where they last saw it and come back for it! The Great Ohio Bike Adventure (GOBA) is a week-long bicycle trip around a different loop in Ohio every year. I’m tentatively hoping to try it out next year.
Over the weekend we camped with some friends and family. On Sunday we visited a small town in Indiana called Metamora. I had never heard of the small town before, but my mom had visited with my grandfather many years ago. I didn’t have my camera, so I wasn’t able to take any pictures! I was really surprised to find out that the small town is maintained as a “canal village” that dates back to 1838. The “whitewater canal” is still intact and you can ride a passenger boat that is pulled along on the tote path by two 2,000lb Belgian horses. There is also a train rides along the rail line on the tote path to take passengers down a 15 mile trip through the Indiana countryside. The buildings were all in the familiar 2-story mid-1800s architecture style that I’ve come to recognize as the midwestern hallmark.
There was one thing that was curious to me and I found myself thinking about this morning when I was heading into work. There was one building that was titled the “I.O.O.F” building. I recognized the IOOF acronym, although I’m not sure from where. On my way to work this morning I took an alternate route through the heart of historic Madisonville, where there are many buildings from the late 1800s that have seen better days. I passed right by a small 2-story brick building and was surprised to see, sitting at the apex just below the roof, the words “I.O.O.F”. As it turns out, IOOF stands for Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a fraternal organization dating back to 1811. There are 51 chapters still around in the United States, and I’m sure that the Metamora chapter is still around. I swear I’ve seen another I.O.O.F building at some point in the last year, either in Cincinnati or up around the Columbus area. A quick google search reveals many buildings around Cincinnati. I’m definitely going to keep my eye out and see what else I can find. It looks like the particular building I saw this morning, located on Mathis street, isn’t even included on the previously linked registry.
Ault Park Sunrise 