Country Roads

--> Upon entering the “northway” in Westport, we were officially on the road and heading south. The interstate highways in New York were fairly uneventful until a stop at the Duanesburg  Stewart’s Shop where we had the best malted vanilla shakes that we have ever consumed, and we are connoisseurs of such things! We toasted Bill, Jill and Wolfjaw Killon with them and continued on I-88, eventually crossing onto the backroads of western Pennsylvania.

We picked Bald Eagle State Park off of the road atlas for our evening destination. We snaked through tiny hamlets and townships, finding our way to the park. There was no chance to see a bald eagle due to the pouring rain and we huddled under a pavilion to eat our Hormel chili (with a can of corn thrown in). Yes, it finally tastes like a road-trip!

Luckily, the rain cleared off at night and we could sleep in the car with windows open. We started our day with V-8 fusion and breakfast cookies (a big thank you to Mary-Ellen, Karen and Jean!) before leaving for the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site in off-and-on showers.

Walking into the historic site completely ignorant of what it may be, we soon learned that it was part of Pennsylvania’s canal system. The canal connecting Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was flawed due to the imposing Allegheny mountains in the way. Their solution was to build stationary engines on hills connected to rope-tows and drag the boats up and over the mountains. One has to appreciate the ingenuity and big engineering ideas as well as the industrious immigrant labor from the nineteenth century.

Heading south towards Johnstown, we found the Johnstown Flood National Memorial on the map. We headed into the visitor center fairly ignorant of the scale of the event. It turned out to be a mostly manmade disaster when an earthen dam gave way in 1889 and killed over two thousand people in the villages down-river. It was not exactly an uplifting stop, but an interesting piece of local history nonetheless.

We couldn’t find a picnic area, so we ended up pulling into a Wal-Mart parking lot to eat our chicken sandwiches for lunch. About halfway through our meal we noticed a “no loitering” sign. Lisa decided that as soon as you pull out a can opener, you’re loitering. Luckily the local authorities didn’t seem to notice…PHEW!

Since it was right down the road, we headed to another depressing national landmark: The Flight 93 Memorial. The memorial is as yet unfinished but seems well visited and still shows the missing trees from where the plane had crashed. It was the first national memorial that we have visited that recounts and event that we could remember from our lifetime.

After crossing briefly into Maryland and then entering West Virginia, we headed to Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park for the evening where we were the only persons tenting in a busy campground. We walked on the boardwalk and admired the rolling mountains of West Virginia – it is really a beautiful state. Dinner was salmon, beans and lemon-pepper pasta before we played some music and went to bed.

We are currently in Kentucky, heading towards Mammoth Cave National Park for the evening. It has taken us through Appalachia where we found “Bluegrass Breakdown” as the morning show on the local public radio station! There’s nothing like starting your day in the mountains of West Virginia with Orange Blossom Special coming through the speakers!