Operation Lily Put, Day 3: Pennsylvania, Maryland

We left Pittsburgh early-ish.  Ok, early adjacent.  Fine, but it was before noon!  After a stop at an awesome Starbucks for breakfast foods and an earworm of a Blur song, we headed into the city.

We agonized over the route we would take from Pittsburgh to Maryland, but to be honest there wasn't much debate.  We both wanted to see cool scenery, maybe a covered bridge, and if at any time we felt it was time to hit a superhighway and boogie, they were nearby.  We settled on Highway 30, which was also the Lincoln Highway.  Some day I would love to drive it from New York to San Francisco, but until then I'll have to settle for sections.  The first kid's college is on a stretch of it, both original and the superhighway that bypassed all the small towns it runs through in Iowa.  I just love the romance of a road that goes all the way across the country in a time when doing that drive was not a common occurrence.  When I do the whole thing I want to do it in a Model-T or on an Indian motorcycle.  And I want a mechanic to follow me with parts and knowledge, as I would be helpless repairing either vehicle.  (Let's go all the way off track and mention I've been listen to the audiobook version of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, all 5,433,422-some hours of it.  It's a great read but the author distinguishes between those who know how a vehicle works and can fix it, and the people who just love the idea of riding the vehicle and the moment it stops working they're completely lost.  I am of the latter group.  On our long distance scooter rides I had a friend who had the same model scooter, and if anything went wrong he always knew how to fix it or how badly I was screwed.)

We did get to go through a tunnel (under a neighborhood, Lily pointed out) and get boxed in by some trucks.  It was fun though, and I did notice there were "exit" doors available in case of an emergency.  Where they dumped you out is anybody's guess, as we were deep under a whole bunch of earth. 

Also, the night before I had commented that Pittsburgh must have a strange experience when it comes to drinking and driving.  Sober in the daylight it was difficult enough to navigate - I can't imagine someone who was drunk at night could get more than a few hundred yards before running aground.  The proliferation of DUI lawyer signs says otherwise, but I still thought it interesting.

I had planned for the route to at least give us a vista of downtown Pittsburgh, though I wasn't sure Lily would appreciate it.  When we did come out of the tunnel to this view:

I think Lily audibly gasped.  It was a really great view, and it popped nicely after the tunnel.  We skirted downtown on the highway and got to see some big buildings, river (and riverboats!) and some interesting neighborhoods of Pittsburgh.

I was still in my "got to sell the scenery" mode when we headed out of town on a state highway, stoplights and all.  Of course Lily was up for it - she's a trooper!  She said she would drive on a road like that all the time, as it's interesting and not just a boring set of lanes through trees.  

We saw lots of interesting businesses, and were assured that if we needed a tattoo or any part of a vehicle repaired ("ALL ELECTRICAL THINGS") we were in the right place.  Occasionally we would see a sign that we thought was interesting and call it out.  So many times in a sea of signs we would both be drawn to the same sign, and cheer it together in unison, unplanned.  One of the best was a hairdresser called "Do or Dye" - Lily thought the Dye pun was awesome, but after a moment I pointed out that the "Do" could be short for "Hairdo" and that was even better.  We were both impressed, and somewhere in the world is someone who chuckles every once in a while for having thought that up.

Our next amusement has me a bit conflicted.  A number of years ago the whole family took a roadtrip from flyover country down to New Orleans.  It was an epic roadtrip, and some of us enjoyed the many miles more than others.  But one of the things we took back from the trip was that Eli and I had a running joke about the "Bridge Ices Before Road" signs that were all over the place.  We'll still mention it at some random time and laugh.

So Lily and I picked up the same joke.  We just saw so many of those signs!  Initially we'd point it out, but after a while we'd ask each other "wait, which one ices first" or "is it the road or the bridge that ices first?" and on and on.  So now I have the same inside joke with each kid.  If either of them reads this blog I'll be in trouble.  That reminds me, Lily wants a link to this blog.  Maybe I'll give her "https://www.atlasobscura.com/" and say I'm really prolific at writing about interesting roadside things..

Neither of my kids are troublemakers.  Lily especially so.  In high school she had friends who drink, who smoke, who get high, etc.  The more she saw the less she wanted to be in on it - though not judging her friends, those things aren't for her.  A crucial element is the fact that she goes rock climbing competitively, on a team at our local club, and just for fun.  Because of this she's in phenomenal shape, even if her hands are like sandpaper.  I think it's the fact that any of the above vices would be echo'd back directly to her performance really motivates her not to try them.  That said, she *is* going off to college, so we'll see.  

She does have one minor vice, and that's energy.  She'll drink a Red Bull or sometimes even a 5 Hour Energy when she's on a long drive, or wants to stay up even later than adolescent dusk, which I think it about midnight or 1am.  So she grabbed a blueberry Red Bull out of her bag and tried it for the first time.  Normally she likes the diet because it's less sweet.  I can't remember exactly how she described it but the phrases "and the stem of a tomato" and "like a flavored V-8" were definitely used.  I got a great video of her fake (or not) gagging on it and laughing.  Enjoy this stillframe:

We also, unsurprisingly, saw a lot of "now hiring" signs.  Like, a whole lot of them.  Everywhere.  No matter the job, you can have a shot at it.  So every time we saw a "hiring" sign we called it out.  There was a lot of calling out on this trip.

Eventually we cleared the city and suburbs and exurbs and ruralburbs and got to hit some hills and see some vistas.  I took a billion pictures, but none of them really capture the depth, color, beauty and awe of the actual view.  So here's just one:

As you may recall, we wanted to see a real covered bridge, after seeing so many license plates with the image highlighted.  So I did some googling and found one not too far off the Lincoln Highway.  So at the appointed time we turned off the main road and headed into nowhere land.  It was much nicer than the movies would have you think.  We did not see hillbilly's with banjos, nor did we see endless sprawls of decrepit barns and dead vehicles.  Lawns were neatly mowed for the most part, animals looked healthy, corn was abundant, and more often than not people waved at us driving by, without us even starting the social interaction.

Among the interesting back country scenery we came upon a cemetery.  Hello Wikipedia:

The word cemetery (from Greek κοιμητήριον, "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a burial ground and originally applied to the Roman catacombs. The term graveyard is often used interchangeably with cemetery, but a graveyard primarily refers to a burial ground within a churchyard.

The first child was fascinated by the local cemetery (every time I type that I get closer to knowing how to spell it) and spent hours walking it and looking at graves while enjoying the nature and quiet found in the middle of the city.  This is how I learned the difference between the two, and to be honest I don't think I'd seen a proper graveyard yet.  So when we came upon a cemetery looking area, with not only an associated church, but a second church across the way, I was thrilled to witness a true graveyard!

No street view, but here is the google satellite image.   

What are those black things?  Mennonite buggies?

  

Sadly, the arched entrance named it as a cemetery:  

I know you're getting used to going off topic, so let me tell you about the coffeetable book I want to create some day - or maybe some work of fiction.

Driving to and from Iowa from Minnesota I get bored of the main highway.  You should know this by now.  So when nobody else is with me and I can have my way with the map, I end up on some tiny lonely backroads.  Many of them have little hamlets along the way, and the vast majority of them have a cemetery.  (Not a graveyard, as previously mentioned.)

Almost every cemetery has a fence around it and a beautiful (or simple, or both) gateway with a name on it.  I think about the job of the travelling salesman back at the turn of the previous century, and how they used to sell all manner of things.  And in these cases, I'm guessing there was someone going from town to town checking the cemetery, and if it didn't have an archway, or the archway wasn't customized, these sales people - and in my story it's just one lonely soul - and sell a gate order to the town fathers.

 In my story the lonely salesman falls in love with some town's mayor's daughter, and after some sort of misadventure ends up settling down and marrying her.  Or I could just be lazy and take pictures of a bunch of them, throw them in a glossy book and sell it at Barnes & Noble in the discount section that has coffee table books.  Can't be any less worthy than "Barns of Rural Pennsylvania" or "Classic Cars and their owner's dogs."  Please don't steal my idea or I'll haunt you like the bitter spirit of one of the people buried in a cemetery whose town father's decided not to get the pretty gate.

After that high minded, romanticized bit about cemeteries and the people who manage them, enjoy this bit of ten year old humor in the name of one of the roads we had to turn on:

After not enough miles of roads through fields and forests like these..

Crossing this beautiful little stream..

We found the Glessner bridge, built in 1881.  We drove over it but the video of that was too big, and I can't be bothered to put it on YouTube.  Just imaging driving through this bridge, but without the family taking a picture of their daughter and dog:

We were both too timid to interrupt, go past them, etc.  I did, however, against the advice of my daughter, go get a picture of their jeep.  The spare tire said "Gone Squatchin'" and it had a fun logo on the side.  This is the jeep I aspire to own one day.  Bonus for having orange highlights.  (We had actually been following them and I was bummed I couldn't get a picture when we turned off for the bridge, but as it turned out they took the long way and we took the quick way, so we did get a private moment with the bridge.)

Back on the Lincoln Highway, we actually passed the Flight 93 National Memorial, but didn't see any signs, so had no idea to check it out.  Next time.

From then on pretty much every corner we turned there was another breathtaking view.  The roads were smooth and empty, and we felt like the only people in the world.  I think it was the best way to see the hills of Pennsylvania.

Some rather intimidating signs here and there either warning you of the dangers of the road, or goading you into taking even more roads through the hills.  Very cool!

Time was wearing on, and by the time the roads got busier and we saw more and more national chain restaurants and stores, we decided to call it a magical day and hit the superhighways for our destination.  Again, great driving habits of the local citizenry meant trucks on the right, passers on the left, and everyone was doing at least 15 over the 70 mph speed limit.  

When we saw the first sign for Baltimore the idea of driving 124 miles seemed like the home stretch, when it's actually a longer distance than that to our family cabin back home.  But after 1100 miles you get cocky about more mileage.

We caught the "Welcome to Maryland" sign, and you're going to have to trust me on that as the below image doesn't really look very clear.  But we got it!

At this point we were both ready to be done driving, and quite excited about the days to come that the speed went up and the time flew by.  Lily did all the driving today and that was fine by me - yesterday burned me out a bit.  1100 miles and we only listened to music in the last hour or two, and that was just the new Lorde album, and her previous two albums.  Not bad for 24ish hours driving across half the country!  It's a testament to the fun we had driving, chatting, and exploring the half of our country from the Mississippi river to the Atlantic Ocean.

We finally got to my brother's house and the girl cousins got to see each other after way too many months.  We had a great dinner (Pizza!) and sat around chatting with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece, though in Lily's case it involved lots of running around after a toddler and playing "peek a boo" to hear her giggle.  Both hers giggling.  A good way to end an amazing journey incident free!

Again, too tired to edit, check for mistakes and spelling.  Tomorrow is a big day!