November 2008: Cincinnati, Ohio….the Neon Shangri-La

We’re planning for our next trip, a 4 day weekend to Georgia. We originally planned for Thanksgiving weekend, then Pat asked if I could go sooner (i.e., this weekend). No sooner did I arrange for Friday and Monday off work, when I received an e-mail from our friend, Denny Gibson, from Cincinnati. Another roadie friend, Don “RoadDog” from the American Road Magazine Forum that we moderate, was going to be passing through Cincinnati and they were planning on going to the elusive American Sign Museum. Elusive, that is, to Pat and me – we never seemed to be in Cincinnati at a time when the owner / founder was available to give a tour.

However, the sign museum now has regular hours (every Saturday from 10-4) and Denny wanted to know if we wanted to join them for the day. I immediately said yes and canceled my 2 days off (back to Thanksgiving weekend for that trip…so stay tuned!).

We met up with Denny and Don for breakfast at The Echo Restaurant, in the Hyde Park neighborhood. This neighborhood looked familiar – a short while back, Pat and I had driven down to pick up some Danny DeVito’s Limoncello, which I couldn’t get in Indiana.

After breakfast, we drove to downtown Cincinnati and then over to Union Terminal, which primarily serves as the city’s Museum Center, housing a Children’s Museum, Cincinnati History Museum, and Natural History / Science Museum. They have a free tour of the terminal, which we took. It is an extremely impressive Art Deco building, completely evocative of the era. The terminal was saved from near destruction with its current use, after having had a short life as a mall. The decline of rail travel in favor of automobile travel led to the diminished use as a train station. There was no passenger service from 1972 to 1991, when service was resumed. Very few trains run through here, as the museum complex is the building’s primary usage.

We then headed over to the American Sign Museum. All I can say is “wow.” Complete roadie heaven! Here are a few photos…see my links at the bottom of this post for more.

After the sign museum, we had an early dinner at Terry’s Turf Club. The burgers and fries were great! More neon awaited us there too.

Afterward, Don and Denny were going to catch some live music, but Pat and I needed to head back to Indy, so we said our goodbyes and headed home.

For more photos from this trip here are a few slide shows:

November 2008: Cincinnati, Ohio

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American Sign Museum – Cincinnati, Ohio

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Union Terminal – Cincinnati, Ohio

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