After an amazing breakfast at Amish Door it was back into the Jeep Grand Cherokee for the 185 mile drive to Pittsburgh airport. Again I decided to stay off the interstate and keep on the back roads. It made the trip a little longer but it was so worth it.

The farmyards, the corn fields, the backwater towns and just road tripping heaven. For parts I drove along the Erie and Ohio canals, which had me belting out  The Boss’s Erie Canal….

I’ve got a mule and her name is Sal

Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal

She’s a good old worker and a good old pal

Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal

Stopped as often as I could to take pics along the way. Route took me to Bucyrus, Galion, Mansfield, Mifflin, Wooster, Carrollton, Mechanicstown, Salinesville, East Liverpool and then Chester to the Pittsburgh airport.  I stopped for lunch at a strange place called Crickson family restaurant for a less than memorable snack. The traffic was fine along the way, roadworks and stop and goes were the only hassle. But it is so great to see the rural areas and lifestyle. Car travel gives you so much control over what you see and do and where you stop. In general the roads are decent, but the weather does take its toll. My first destination was the airport where the car was handed back fine and then I got an Uber to downtown Pittsburgh. The driver’s name was Janet and she gave me a bottle of ice cold water and mints….who has ever heard of that before.

The drive to downtown took about 30 minutes and goes through  the Fort Pitt tunnel and as you exit the tunnel, the first view of the city is breathtaking. I managed to get some great video of it. I was dropped off at my hotel the Hampton Inn and Suites, where the reception crew of Chelsea and Taylor worked their hospitality magic. Jeez are these guys well trained and professional. Warm welcome, info on the area, invited to help myself to complimentary water. I asked for a quiet room…they obliged and offered me a room a view of the river as a complimentary upgrade. Thank You! Nothing is too much trouble and they know the area and the tourist intersts. Unusual and so great to experience.

I asked for a suggestion as to what to do first, out came a map and a marker and detailed directions. When I got back 2.5 hours later, I was asked how was your walk, did you enjoy it? Offered another bottle of cold water….hats off to the Hilton training team! Once again, the weather treated me to some awesome photo opportunities…big black storm clouds provide the perfect backdrop. Then to add to my great day, this is clearly a city of bridges and I really love bridges. So many to see and walk across. The walk went past the baseball grounds, the football stadium and ends at Point State Park, where two rivers converge. The Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, join to become the Ohio River. On the point area was a fort originally built by the French in 1754 and then destroyed by them, when the British invaded. The British then built Fort Pitt.

I walked back to my hotel through the city centre, down Penn Avenue, vibrant with hotels, restaurants and stacks of people. Plans for tomorrow are the Hop on Hop Off bus tour and a sunset Segway tour through the city. It is now midnight and time to snooze….enjoy the pics, I am sure there will be stacks more tomorrow.

Amish door dining room

Scones and gravy

Meat dishes

Yellow fields and blue skies

Erie and Ohio canal

Wild flowers

This is how they start

This is how the open

miiiiiiieeeeliiiess

Downtown backwater

Ohio river