Cincinnati Spur: Don't miss the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
We rode the spur to riverfront Cincinnati to visit the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The first part of the route was along a railtrail, but then were routed onto city streets. Drivers were fairly accomodating and there were some painted bike lanes.
We saw the most unusual home on our ride in to the Freedom Center.
No idea about the story behind this house.* 9-25-11 Update. Robert Linz, the southbound UGRR cyclist we met previously saw this picture in the journal and provided the following information about the home. "That place is owned by an architect who teaches at the university of Cincinnati. He built it with the help of students and is a landmark for the area!"
The ride into downtown Cincy had a nice downhill. Having a GPS and a rear seat navigator (to read the ACA map) on the rear tandem seat helped us make the turns without incident.
We could not find a safe place to lock our tandem outside of the center, but they allowed us to park the bike inside the lobby's outer area. There were many school groups touring. We spent about 3 1/2 hours touring only to realize there was a third floor that we still had not visited. We wanted to avoid Friday rush hour traffic, so we did only a quick walk-through of the third floor.
We only took a few pictures inside the Freedom Center before noticing a sign indicating picture taking was not permitted. This is one of the huge quilts hanging in the center area.
The center was very informative, especially reading about people and places we had cycled through and heard about only days before. For example, this slave pen was relocated from Mayesville, KY. When sitting inside the slave pen you could look up to the rafters to see iron bolts where slaves were manacled. For me, looking at that iron bolt, was the image that brought home the inhumanity of slavery.
