THE PITTSBURGH EXPERIENCE

Carol writes:  As the sounds of the iconic guitar tunes of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame faded in the rearview mirror along with the Cleveland skyline, the big bus rolled on into the hills and valleys of the Pennsylvania countryside.  Our destination for the next week was New Stanton, Pennsylvania, in the greater Pittsburgh area.  

Pittsburgh has been given the nickname “the Steel City” in recognition of the hundreds of steel-related businesses that were an integral part of its early history.  Most Americans also know Pittsburgh as a city of championship sports franchises, including the Pittsburgh Steelers,

the Pittsburgh Pirates,

and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The biggest surprise on first seeing this gritty, yet friendly blue-collar “Rust Belt” town, was its amazing raw beauty and unique locale at the junction of three rivers.  

We knew we would need at least a couple of days to check out this most interesting backdrop; however, first on our agenda was a visit to a 1935 Frank Lloyd Wright private home creation called Fallingwater, which has been hailed as the “best all-time work of American architecture.”

In his lifetime, architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed over 1000 structures, and half of them were eventually built.  Fallingwater is considered his masterpiece.  The home was designed as a private weekend retreat for a wealthy businessman.  Wright designed this dramatically cantilevered structure on Bear Run

to sit above the waterfall rather than below it so that its owner could better appreciate the amazing natural view of the cascading waters, as seen looking back from this iconic vantage point. 

As with all Frank Lloyd Wright creations, the goal was to promote harmony between man and nature through design.  To that end, incorporating a waterfall into the organic architecture of this home has internationally been recognized as brilliant.  Wright felt that his Prairie style of horizontal surfaces with compressed and released space that invited the outdoors inside expressed the character, indeed the very soul, of a new American style.

During the tour, photography was prohibited inside; however, there were thousands of indoor photographs online, so I have shamelessly resorted to using two publicly available photos.  The main living space shows how Wright masterfully incorporated the interplay of architecture, design and landscape.  Many of the natural materials used in the construction of Fallingwater were harvested from the building site.

Back to Pittsburgh…

We picked a beautiful sunny day at the height of the summer season for an ambitious urban hike along the Pittsburgh waterfront where the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers meet to form the headwaters of the Ohio River.  What a marvelously beautiful locale—with a point of emphasis provided by the fountain at the confluence, along with numerous bridges up and down the three rivers as a backdrop.

A short way downstream from the confluence, we rode the Duquesne Incline funicular to the top of the bluff for lunch at “Vue 412” 

and a grand view of the meeting point of three rivers.  Out of curiosity, I asked and was told that “412” is the area code of Pittsburgh.  Clever restaurant branding!

It was easy to appreciate why nighttime blimp scenes of Heinz Field featured on Sunday Night Football Steelers’ games always seemed so unbelievably spectacular!

More Pittsburgh skyline beauty unfolded as we as we angled toward a hike across the Clemente Bridge.

Equally impressive was the section of riverfront featuring the castle-like crown of PPG Place and the building with giant pictures of three beloved residents of Pittsburghs:  Rachel Carson, Andy Warhol, and Roberto Clemente.  

We also stopped for a glance inside the fences of the hallowed grounds where Roberto Clemente made his mark on baseball history.

With a man like Andrew Carnegie as its wealthy benefactor, it wasn’t surprising to discover that Pittsburgh has a first-class museum of art.  One day wasn’t near enough to cover such a renowned art museum, in addition to the large and small wonders found in the accompanying Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Paintings of Pittsburgh at the height of the manufacturing era,

Dutch portraiture,

Renoir Impressionism,

Van Gogh wheat fields,

and anything connected with those water lilies of Monet

drew us in like a magnet.

The natural history section of the museum offered us a peek at large-scale classic architecture, 

the required dinosaur skeletons,

and remarkable life-size animal dioramas.

Near the museum complex on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, Heinz Chapel and the tower of classrooms called the Cathedral of Learning were architectural feasts for the eyes.

And although we arrived just at closing, we sneaked a peek inside the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the genesis for the creation of hundreds of local libraries endowed by Andrew Carnegie that we have seen in our travels in small towns throughout the United States.

It is a well-worn story about how Pittsburgh fell on incredibly hard times during the deindustrialization era of the 1980s.  Today, however, technology firms, federal agencies, banking institutions, well-regarded colleges and universities, sports powerhouses, and venues of culture have given rebirth to a city that now ranks as one of America’s most livable cities.  As we moved on in anticipation of next week’s adventure at a waterfall in Buffalo, I couldn’t help but wonder why we waited so long to visit Pittsburgh.

Carol Galus

Photo-Blogger

FAMILY TIME IN TOLEDO AND CLEVELAND

Skyline of Cleveland, Ohio

Carol writes:  Heading south over the Mackinac Bridge,

the big bus rolled on down the interstate to Charlotte, Michigan, where we had an appointment at the Spartan Chassis Facility 

for the annual service checkup on our motorhome.  Servicing is always painful, because even if no unforeseen problems arise, fluid replacements and diagnostic checks alone can cost a pretty penny.  A simple oil change requires 26 quarts of oil!

In the early morning hours, client motorhomes rotated into the repair shop as if on an assembly line.  At night, vehicles were returned to their owners and Spartan allowed its customers to camp for “free” in parking spaces that provided electricity.

We ended up spending 3 nights at Spartan.  I’ll just say that in the end, it was a mighty expensive “free” 3 days of camping… 

TOLEDO FAMILY TIME

From the Spartan Chassis Facility, we headed to Harborside KOA in Monroe, Michigan, a great basecamp for visiting my brother and his wife, who live just over the state line in Toledo.

A quick oil change on our Jeep tow vehicle at Toledo’s Yark Automotive Group seemed like a good idea at the time.  Yark ended up keeping the Jeep for 3 days; I don’t want to talk about the details…

Meanwhile, we had fun visiting with brother Greg and his wife Shirley.  We created new family memories with a little casino time, taking turns hosting meals, a birthday celebration at Olive Garden, and an afternoon at the Toledo Museum of Art.

The Crowning of St. Catherine by Peter Paul Rubens was the most prized possession in the museum’s collection.  This Rubens masterpiece was featured in the movie “The Monuments Men,” which recounted a true story about a platoon of soldiers in WW II that was tasked with rescuing art masterpieces looted by Hitler’s henchmen and returning them to their rightful owners.

CLEVELAND FAMILY TIME

With servicing completed on car and motorhome, we moved a few hundred miles east to Thompson, Ohio, and had a great family cookout in the Cleveland suburbs at my niece Kelly’s house.

We appreciated all the hard work that went into a great mini family reunion with Greg and Shirley, our nieces, and my great-nephew.

Al and I have never had a good look around Cleveland, so for our day together Greg and Shirley suggested a walking tour of the downtown, 

which turned out to be an excellent choice.  We visited:

• the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument,

which had hallowed walls inside where the names of 9000 who gave their lives for our country were inscribed;

• the Old Stone Church,

famous for its long and storied Cleveland history, in addition to several Tiffany stained glass windows, two of which were signed;

the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland,

which had an interesting museum but little to no comment on exactly what was in the large basement vaults, even when I pointedly asked.

We rounded out our walk through downtown Cleveland with a delightful long and lazy lunch before an open window at the House of Blues.  Greg and Shirley sure were troopers for driving 200 miles from Toledo so they could spend the day showing us around Cleveland…

Eight U.S. presidents have called Ohio home, more than any other state.  The James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Ohio, was a fascinating unexpected find for “presidential junkies" like us.

The Garfield farm was dubbed Lawnfield by reporters of the day, and it became the centerpiece for Garfield’s successful “front porch” presidential campaign.

James Garfield was a general in the Civil War, served 17 years in Congress, spoke several languages, and was a highly educated man with a broad classical education.  One can only wonder what great things he would have accomplished if his term in office hadn’t been cut short by an assassin’s bullet after he had been in office for only 200 days.

After being mortally wounded, Garfield lingered for two months while his wife Lucretia, mother of his five children, kept a bedside vigil.

Inside and out, Lawnfield was impeccably restored to the Garfield era.  An incredible 80%  of the home’s furnishings were original to the Garfield family, which made a tour of the house especially worthwhile.

The presidential library added on to the house by the president’s wife, Lucretia, was by far the gem of the house tour.  After President Garfield’s death, Lucretia devoted the remaining decades of her life to preserving her deceased husband’s legacy.

After family time in Cleveland, we took a few days to look around the area a bit.  The shore of Lake Erie was very picturesque, with a picture-perfect lighthouse.  

Local wineries had some very good Ohio wines that were welcome additions to our bare motorhome “wine cellar.”  Debonné Vineyards had a great sweet wine-tasting selection.

 

No visit to Cleveland is complete without a tour of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

For baby boomers like ourselves, this had been on the bucket list for a long time.  On the outside, the museum was a lovely modern work of art perched at the edge of the Lake Erie harbor with the skyline of Cleveland as a lovely backdrop.

Inside, from the early origins of rock and roll, with its Bo Diddley guitar,

to relatively modern times, with Beyoncé and Katy Perry costumes, 

‘Rock Hall’ did a pretty good job of displaying priceless artifacts from rock artists of every variety.

A dizzying display of guitars, like these belonging to Eric Clapton (left) and John Lennon (right),

and original descriptive scores, like this one from Lennon & McCartney’s “Hey Jude,” filled numerous display cases.                      

Costumes were the big draw!  I couldn’t get enough of these…

  Elvis and Tom Petty

Diana Ross, Cass Elliot, Michael Jackson:

 

this trio worn by The Supremes,

and this one from Tina Turner’s ‘Private Dancer’ video.

The Hall of Fame plaques honored so many who were a tour de force in their day.

 

1994 was a great year—

—as was 2001

And finally, for two RVers who have been on our own road tour for a good long while, the 1979 Johnny Cash tour bus was a hoot!  On the outside, the black and chrome color scheme (of course!) was as nifty as a lot of motorhomes on the road today.  Naturally, inside the decor was a bit worn and dated.

However, ever so faintly, the ghostly sounds of many great Johnny and June Carter Cash tunes sung in that bus could be appreciated, provided you allowed your imagination to roam free.

Carol Galus

Photo-Blogger