In which I go to Pittsburgh

Last week we hopped in the car and headed north to meet up with the Meesters in Pittsburgh. They were going to an annual quiz meet and we were going to see them and watch some quizzing. This is our story.

Charlotte

Our plan was to drive to Stoystown, PA to visit the Flight 93 Memorial. The trip began well, we made good time to the interstate and then Boom! a traffic jam. The interstate was going nowhere so Mary tried an alternative route. Didn’t work. Took us two hours to go what would normally have taken 20 minutes. Great start.

West Virginia

After we escaped the congestion in Charlotte, we whisked across North Carolina and Virginia and entered purgatory, I mean West Virginia. We must’ve been in West Virginia for three days. I’ve driven across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. West Virginia drives like the biggest state in the Union.
West Virginia is aptly called the mountaineer state – mountains everywhere you look. Sadly, in order to make all these roads, they blasted the face off of most of them.
We grew weary and night was falling so we stopped in Fairmont for the night. Our plan was to drive straight through but Fairmont made us glad we stopped - it gets dark in West Virginia, the roads are narrow, and they don’t believe in street lights or reflectors on the road!

The next day we hit the road again. As if we hadn’t spent enough time driving north through West Virginia, we now drove east across the state, on into Maryland. Finally, Hwy 219. We headed north and into Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania

Hello, what’s this? A Pennsylvania welcome!

We were now driving through rural Pennsylvania. Not Amish rural, but the rural that comes just before Amish country. The roads were getting smaller and smaller until there was no longer a shoulder, straight from road to field. This was German country. How German? We drove straight through Berlin!

Very cool covered bridge. We thought this was unique but we saw several more

Finally, in the absolute middle of nowhere we came to the Flight 93 Memorial.

Very somber and thought-provoking

Now it was time to wend our way from rural PA to Pittsburgh, so we made our way to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It was here we learned turnpike is Pennsylvania Dutch for stand and deliver – cost $7.00 to drive the 70 miles from Somerset to Pittsburgh!

Pittsburgh
At last, Pittsburgh. Our hotel was downtown. Here’s the view from our room.

That's the Allegheny River, just before it joins the Monongahela to form the Ohio River. That yellow bridge is Clemente Bridge. As in Roberto Clemente. And those lights are PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Driving home we crossed over Mazeroski Way. I’m not a big city guy, but that was cool.

The quiz meet was held at the Allegheny Center Alliance Church, less than half a mile away. This downtown church began in 1894 when Dr. A.B. Simpson asked E.D. Whiteside to oversee this Branch of the Christian & Missionary Alliance. Great history and, even though none of the buildings go back quite that far, they do have neat buildings. Since this was a quiz, we watched a lot of Bible quizzing and in between quizzes hung out with the Meesters. I actually coached the senior quizzers in a couple of quizzes, offering advice, encouragement, and motivation.

In this photo, I am offering a pen to the quizzer who got the most correct answers. Drew rose to the challenge and won the pen. Later, I offered that same pen to another quizzer if she got her name called. She did, so I took said pen from Drew and gave it to her!

Saturday we ate lunch with the Meesters. First, I wandered downtown with Anne, Aimee, and Claire in search of gluten free fair then we returned to the church building for lunch with the rest of the family. During lunch I had a great discussion with Drew, my 14 year old grandson, about a book he is reading:

Yes, that’s what he is reading! When I was 14 I was reading Andre Norton science fiction and Louis L’Amour westerns. I’m impressed. I asked him his impressions and he said Luther appears to be very opinionated, very forceful in his thinking and presentation. (Not offended, just kind of shocked.) I commented, “This is the way preaching is supposed to be; not namby-pamby like so much of today’s preaching.” He was impressed with Luther’s clear presentation of the Creed – “This is a very accurate presentation of the truth and this is what it means.” This excites my heart.

After lunch I went exploring with the senior quizzers. Allegheny Center has a very old and interesting facility. We took the elevator and explored every floor. All six of them. (We took no photos because we were so into the actual exploring.) On the top floor we tried earnestly to get on the roof, but for some reason they keep those doors locked. I tried every interesting door we saw. “Did you really just open that door??” Well, yes, how else would we know what’s behind it! Brought back memories of the days my children and I explored every nook and cranny of Winthrop. And you can ask them, we literally went everywhere.

All this before 2 pm! Dave and I headed back to the hotel to watch the Tar Heels beat Florida State in a very exciting game. Then we all headed to Buca di Beppo for the traditional Saturday-night-end-of-the-Pittsburgh-weekend meal.

Here I am, shocked at how high up we were - we were on the 8th floor. And yes, I took the stairs down twice and up once. Ryan and Chase went down with me the first time. Well, I walked, they ran!

Sunday morning we all drove home. And that was my first visit to Pittsburgh.