Pittsburgh

WHAT A COOL CITY! I guess I am in love! I will return to Pittsburgh and just purchased the Moon Handbook titled Pittsburgh and a detailed street map to study up! Here is my latest shot.

Behind the Scene at the Art Festival

279 miles to Beckley, WV

Beckley is my father's old stomping ground... My grandfather worked in the coal mines repairing equipment in Minden, WV. There is a coal mine here in Beckley that we toured a couple of summers ago. The Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine was operational and really portrays the hard work that went on in the mines. The tour takes you underground into the mine. The facility includes a coal camp and a gift shop.

So what is it like to stand in a booth all day? Honestly, I love it! The compliments were flowing this weekend. One of my favorites was a woman who told me she had just taken 16,000 photographs for a film. Clearly this was a true professional, and she told me I had a "good eye!" Thank you to everyone for the two days of compliments! A realestate professional asked me to shoot his properties... But I don't live there. This is an idea though!

I especially enjoyed talking to Julio (send me your links) and also Pete (I'll look for his card when I unpack) who are both photographers. One woman invited me to join in dancing next time I was in Pittsburg because of talk about the "Waltz" image. (If she only knew how tired my legs were at the end of the day...) And another neat lady told me about a purple bridge about an hour from the show. I can't wait to track that down!

Yes, I took many bridge shots in Pittsburgh. Here's the first from the Rachel Carson Bridge.

Pittsburgh Bridges

Okay, so today I learned 11 minus 4 is way more than 7. (Four hours to Knoxville actually made the trip longer instead of breaking it up. )

But I made it to the city of bridges in plenty of time for the Shadyside art show tomorrow morning. I had no idea there were so many bridges. The structures are all different colors: yellow, blue, green and black. There are 455 bridges. The city actually holds the world's record beating out Venice, Italy. There are so many bridges because three rivers connect here. The Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers weave around Pittsburgh. Here is a shot from tonight.

And, a driving tip in Pittsburgh. The Liberty Bridge is not on Liberty Street. I got it! Hope to see you at the show tomorrow...

Ride to Roanoke with Scat by Carl Hiassen

Mileage 449.5

It was our longest drive today, but we are ready to get back home. The view of the mountains today was peaceful. Lots of farms. In fact there were so many I wondered if they had very much land. They seem to be almost on top of each other; farm houses and silos within a short distance of each other.

We stopped at Costco before we left Staton Island and I was once again reminded of my idea, which Costco can't do. They just can't have an express lane. It just misses the point of Costco. But for SD cards, it is worth standing in line. I bought two - 4GB SD SanDisk cards for $34 total plus tax.

Can't wait to photograph the farm tomorrow. We will see how my favorite tree looks in the summer minus a huge branch that fell this past winter. On the way we might be able to finish Scat, the latest book by Carl Hiaasen. We really enjoyed his other two books, Hoot and Flush. Hoot was made into an enjoyable movie. All of these stories about taking care of our environment and children and adults who make extra steps to correct wrongs.

Philadelphia Quick Stop

Mileage 268

Bike Mileage 5.38

Philadelphia is famous for many successes including Ben Franklin whose history is rich here. But we visited a few years ago and saw Ben's traces and the Liberty Bell. Today we walked down South Street and tasted the Philly Cheese Steak at Jim's Steaks. This was a good sandwich. Look at the line!

This city is very bike friendly with city streets reserving the right lane for buses, right turning vehicles and bicycles. Hopefully, we will be able to ride tomorrow morning.