Phil, Where are you?!
Another uneventful drive through the Allegheny mountains took place earlier today. The FAT went well, with none of the delays from yesterday. We headed out early, thinking of either sightseeing, or at least beating the unknown levels of traffic that may have been present on the route we didn't take last time. US 80 was decidedly bare. At least PA 22/99 had all sorts of little places to stop at. This time there was nothing to speak of, just endless gloomy skies and hills punctuated by an occasional glance into valleys that still held the last remnants of fall colors in the trees.
My traveling buddy decided that it might be fun to head to Punxsutawney and see what Phil (the groundhog, for the uninitiated) was up to. We figured that there must be something up and around for the whole year. Unfortunately, we turned onto the wrong road to get there. On our awful little rental car map, two towns were aligned vertically, one dot being on one road and the other being on another parallel street. Bummer. Maybe next time we buy equipment out here.
Lunch was a honest-to-goodness truckstop in a town whose name I no longer recall completely(Elmenton?). Conversation along they way was easy but ran out when the fatigue caused by monotony and the impending pressures of snowfall threats. I enjoy the company of my travel buddy. I hope he wasn't too put out by my multiple wrong navigational guesses and lack of control over the FAT proceedings last night.
Our last stop before the airport was a suburb of Pittsburgh called Carnegie which sports some of the most beautiful minarets this side of any ocean on Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. We tooled around town a bit, but I doubt I passed my dad's old house, maybe he attended that junior high-school we passed. I smile when I think that. It would have been even more fun having a guided tour, but at the same time, it was fun to explore with the what-ifs and the may-be's.
I look forward to getting home. I hope the weather holds
My traveling buddy decided that it might be fun to head to Punxsutawney and see what Phil (the groundhog, for the uninitiated) was up to. We figured that there must be something up and around for the whole year. Unfortunately, we turned onto the wrong road to get there. On our awful little rental car map, two towns were aligned vertically, one dot being on one road and the other being on another parallel street. Bummer. Maybe next time we buy equipment out here.
Lunch was a honest-to-goodness truckstop in a town whose name I no longer recall completely(Elmenton?). Conversation along they way was easy but ran out when the fatigue caused by monotony and the impending pressures of snowfall threats. I enjoy the company of my travel buddy. I hope he wasn't too put out by my multiple wrong navigational guesses and lack of control over the FAT proceedings last night.
Our last stop before the airport was a suburb of Pittsburgh called Carnegie which sports some of the most beautiful minarets this side of any ocean on Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. We tooled around town a bit, but I doubt I passed my dad's old house, maybe he attended that junior high-school we passed. I smile when I think that. It would have been even more fun having a guided tour, but at the same time, it was fun to explore with the what-ifs and the may-be's.
I look forward to getting home. I hope the weather holds