Wow! Hello, Pittsburgh! (PA)

Leaving the trailer at the KOA, we filled the tank ($3.19/gal) and ventured to Pittsburgh. Roads, at least in this part of PA, route strangely. Cars are bounced on then off freeways, and from one parkway to another and then back to the earlier one, to the point that you just try to follow signs and ignore the illogical directions of short-term travel.

Other than driving/navigating, the trip was nice but not spectacular, but maybe we are becoming jaded. Wooded areas, rolling hills and small towns—then suddenly a long tunnel. As we emerged—wow!—we found ourselves on a bridge with spectacular views of Pittsburgh, sports stadiums, rivers, and more bridges. Steel bridges, of course. It is so sudden all you can do is watch your fenders and go with the flow.  I can’t imagine stumbling into this while towing the trailer. (OK, cousin Scott; so your truck-trailer is larger and you do it every day.)

This is not the Pittsburgh of old. Gone, at least today, are the smoke and haze from steel mills and coal burning. It is a beautiful day.

Now downtown, we didn’t know what we wanted to do and there were no places to stop and figure things out. We were rescued by a sign to Point State Park, but on our first approach we were funneled to a long ramp and hurled across another bridge over yet another river, and deposited in the parking area for Heinz Field, where the Stealers play. No place to stop as everything was blocked for a special event. We drove a short way and there was PNC Park, home of the Pirates. We drove over (I think) our original bridge and back to the downtown and our luck turned, as we found a metered spot big enough for the truck. It was then a very short walk to the museum over the litter-strewn remains of a Fort Pitt bastion.

The Allegheny and Monongahela rivers merge at Point State Park to form the Ohio. (That explains the name of the now demolished Three Rivers Stadium.) Historically, the country that controls this point controls the Ohio Valley so at various times the French and British built forts and they, the Indians, and what would become the Americans, kicked sand at each other. What remain are the bastion, an interesting museum, a beautiful fountain, and a park that could be nice but was closed for renovation.

After an hour at Point State Park Marcia plotted a course to a randomly selected nice restaurant in the student area, after which we toured the impressive Carnegie museums of Art and Natural History ($10 adult $7 senior, covering both museums) until closing. As unfortunately is becoming our pattern of late, it was dark when we reached out camp in Washington PA and rest for the exhausted campers.