The Ray Adventures: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Well, we hate to admit this, but, we really like the Pittsburgh area. Not that we hold a grudge or anything, but after those "snarky" Steelers stole our first Super Bowl appearance we have a bad taste in our mouth when we hear "Pittsburgh". There are a lot of things to see and do here. We'll be here 9 days.

Saturday, April 25th, We called Fox's Den in New Stanton to see if we could arrive a few days early, we packed up and left Rocky Point about 11:00. It was a beautiful day for our drive. As we left the RV park Gary turned right??? We didn't want to go back the way we came in but the area was so rural we couldn't tell from the map if we could get on the freeway. We saw a sign for I -77, whew, short lived, there was no on ramp from the road we were on. We just kept going round in a circle and, whew, it took us to an interchange, off we went heading for West (by God) Virginia. I suppose when you're driving a 40 ft motor home pulling a car with nowhere to turn around you'd get a little cranky too. We were glad to leave Rocky Point, it's part of our RPI membership, it's only $10.per night, but we had to drive 50 miles round trip to get there, you do the math. To be fair, the place was rustic, just not our kind of place. I's so nice to camp at military bases, you pretty much know what type of facilities you're going to get. We stopped in New Adelphia, to pick up our first geo cache in West (by God) Virginia, and have lunch. We chose Quaker Steak and Lube, a small mid-west chain. The brainchild of a service station owner who thought while the customer was getting his car serviced they could get a bite to eat. The restaurant was decorated automobile memorabilia, the door handle on the front door was a gas nozzle and a motorcycle hung over our table. We arrived at Fox's Den about 5:00, the sites are nice size and best of all (and most important) lots of places for Luci to run. You may be wondering why I keep saying "West by God Virginia", my brother-in-law Bob is a native of W. Va., whenever he says West Virginia, he always inserts By God, don't know why, I'll have to ask.

Sunday, April 26th, A nice day, YEA!!! We drove into Pittsburgh, only about 35 miles on the Pennsylvania turnpike, $2.75 each way wasn't as expensive as we thought it would be. We wanted to go to Point State Park, at the confluence of the Allegheney, Monogahela and Ohio Rivers. 20,000 gallons of water gush through the fountain a minute, it was breezy while we were there as you round the point on the walkway you got a little "misty" The city of Pittsburgh has 446 bridges, the most anywhere, and 712 sets of stairs, mostly up Mt. Washington. On the way into Pittsburgh we saw a skyscraper that looked like a castle so we had to investigate. A short walk from the park we picked up our first Pennsylvania cache then went on to find the "castle" The PPG(Pittsburgh Plate Glass) complex, 231 glass spires across the 6 buildings on 5 1/2 acres in the downtown area. Nearly a million square feet of it's own neutral silver solorban clear glass make up it's exterior. We headed back to the coach for "linner", I BBQ'd pork loin that turned out perfect. (as usual) We met our neighbors, Loren and Donna, originally from Illinois but now full-timers. They spent the winter in Florida returning to the Pittsburgh area to care for her 94 year old mother. I met a lady with 4 Shelties, I had to stop to chat. She just came from a dog show in Williamsburg and was on her way home to Columbus, Ohio. She gave me a hard time about my shirt, my Oregon Duck t-shirt, turns out she is a dyed in the wool Ohio State fan.

Monday, April 27th, A cool windy day turning to rain, YUK! Enufff! We drove back into Pittsburgh to visit Heinz Field,on our quest to visit as many NFL stadiums as we can. Steeler Country Booo! As in several other stadiums, it's under construction, adding an additional 3,000 seats, hoping to host a Super Bowl. Inside the concourse the floor is painted green with yard lines, the Steeler Hall of Fame, kiosks displaying the Super Bowl wins and Lombardi trophies, including the one they stole from Seattle. Our tour guide told us that even salaried Steeler employees get a Super Bowl ring. We visited all the usual places, in addition, Bettie Ann our guide, told us facts about the city, including pointing out the home of Art Rooney, across the river, he's the later owner of the Steelers. We didn't go out on the field due to the wet conditions, the turf is natural Kentucky green grass which is heated. We braved the weather to walk a few blocks for lunch at the Jerome Bettis Grill, a former running back for the Steelers. Gary had quite a surprise when he went into the men's room, so while he pee'd he could keep an eye on the bar (TMI), that way I suppose you won't miss a playon the tv. After a quick stop at Wal-Mart we headed home. Luci was glad to see us, I BBQ'd some shrimp for dinner. The rain stopped but the wind will give you an ice cream headache.

Tuesday, April 28th, A nice day, seems like one day is nice the next lousy. We stayed around camp all day, I did laundry and some cleaning while Gary futzed around outside. We can't wash the RV in this campground but Gary got permission to clean the back because those bozo's that changed the oil made a real mess, spilling oil on the side of the coach and onto the rock shield. Makes one wonder about the quality of the oil change. We walked to the end of the park to an adjacent wetland park to pick up a geo cache.

Wednesday, April 29th, A beautiful day, we dropped Luci off at PetSmart PetsHotel for day camp, we were headed back downtown to see more sights. The Duquesne (pronounced du-kane) Incline across the river from Point State Park. It is a funicular incline, the two cars are attached via cable to one rotating drum, meaning as one car descends it's weight counter balances the other car which is simultaneously rising the other car meeting half-way. The fare is $5.00 for a round trip ticket, but seniors over 65 can ride for free. The incline(s) were built in 1877 meaning you didn't have to climb the 1,100 stairs to the top of Mt. Washington. Can you imagine walking up all those steps with a foot of snow on the ground? With an elevation of 1,300 feet the view is outstanding, directly across the river is Point State Park, downtown and it's beautiful skyscrapers, the ball parks and see the confluence of the three rivers, the Allegheny is definitely brown because of the muddy banks, you can see the line between the two other blue rivers. We walked down about 7 blocks to the Bighorn Tavern for lunch. I had yummy tortilla soup and Gary had an Italian quesadilla. Pretty tasty. After lunch we drove down to the University of Pittsburgh to see the 42 story Cathedral of Learning, known as the world's tallest schoolhouse. Fifty three different countries are represented showcasing their average classroom. One, the Austrian, looked more like a dining room with candelabra's and a mural on the ceiling. Not your typical US classroom. We walked the grounds, we discovered the log cabin, which had no signs, belonged to Steven Foster, a Pittsburgh area native, and Heinz Chapel. Our last stop was the Sailors and Soldiers Memorial Hall and Museum, very similar to the one we saw in Indianapolis. Beginning in the front hall with exhibits from Ft. Pitt, Gettysburg, Civil War, WWI and WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm. Our feet had had enough, we picked up Luci and headed home.

Thursday, April 30th, Not a beautiful day, it started raining in the night, thankfully there was no wind and it was quite mild. We decided to go see the Flight 93 Memorial, only about 30 miles east on the Turnpike. ($4.75) Just as we arrived the rain stopped. From the Visitor Center you walk alongside a granite wall with "nooks" for people to leave their remembrances, which are all kept and will be in a rotating exhibit in the new visitor center. I didn't get all the way out to the Wall of Names, sissy me, I was cold,so I went back to the visitor center, while there I overheard a lady talking to the volunteer, giving me the feeling maybe she was a family member of a passenger. After they left I found out she was the mother of one of the women passengers. I asked the volunteer the significance of the boulder in the impact site, the families of the passengers were asked what kind of a memorial they would like, they all agreed on a large boulder, 17 tons, from a mining site in the area. The new visitor center is built along the flight path, they have planted 40 rows of 40 native Pennsylvania trees to honor the 40 lost. The impact site was excavated until they no longer found debris then filled in by the request of the coroner. Neighbors who were home that morning reported that the noise was deafening as the plane flew very low rattling windows and rafters. I didn't know the plane was upside down when it crashed. A very somber day. As we left the rain started again. After we grabbed a quick lunch I visited a quilt store, bought some cute fabric, can't wait to get started on the project.

Friday, May, 1st. Happy May Day! The rain stopped, this time for several days they say. We dropped Luci at PetSmart again headed to Pittsburg to take a trolley tour of the city. We wish we'd done this when we first got here, there are many places we'd like to visit. Our tour guide, Stacy and driver Tom did a great job on our two hour tour, finishing with another ride down the Duquesne Incline. We found out the Point State Park fountain was just turned back on after four years, workers doing some repairs found artifacts in the area. All work stopped and the fountain was turned off until the archeologists were finished. Another fact we learned, a man named Heinz sold homemade horseradish off his cart to locals, then shall we say the rest if history. So much information my brain is reeling.

Well that's it for this week, enjoy the pic's.

TTFN

Gary and Pam