-FrankieT
Finally, the weekend trip to Pittsburgh becomes a reality. On or near the one-year anniversary of the epic Asheville trip, four of the five travelers from the Asheville excursion embark on a pilgrimage to the Riedinger estate in Plum, Pennsylvania. The impetus for this trip is that Kelly needs her dad to perform some steering and brake work on her car. Unfortunately, in order to reach our destination we must traverse treacherous mountains in this aforementioned mechanically-challenged vehicle. Aside from an ominous squeal by the power-steering belt, we reach Pittsburgh on Friday evening with no major mishaps.
Of course, our trip into Pittsburgh was littered with various National Park detours. The first stop was C&O Canal National Historical Park headquarters in Cumberland, Maryland. The visitor center for this unit occupied a retired train station, which I thought was kind of ironic since it was the railroad system that ultimately killed the canal. The exhibits were top-notch and very contemporary with numerous interactive opportunities. Although there was not much to see outside the visitor center, we took a short walk down by the canal and were greeted with several vistas of the historic skyline of Cumberland.
After dining at Wendy's (see picture to the right), we set out for Fort
Necessity National Battlefield across the Pennsylvania state line. The history buffs in our group approached this site with great anticipation because of its significance as the first conflict in the French and Indian War and the first major battle in the military career of General George Washington. It would soon become clear why this 'fort' was named 'Necessity'. Consisting of a crude circle of upright hewn logs in an unremarkable field, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this fortification was the fact that its defensive cannons were located outside of the fort and mounted on swivels. One can see the strategic implications of such an arrangement if the enemy were to somehow encircle the fort. In contrast to the actual fort itself, the visitor center was very impressive with period artifacts and a well-articulated interpretive setting.
answered by the creepy representation of the house's former owner that we watched on the 15-minute video for the site (see picture to left). Speaking of whom, the significance of this site was that it was the estate of Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under the Jefferson and Madison administrations and the man responsible for purchasing the Louisiana Territory and significantly reducing the national debt. The house was gorgeous, as one would expect from a rich dude, and the grounds were also spectacular, with nice views of the Monongahela River.
Incline and lunch at the famous Primanti Brothers restaurant, but I will not elaborate as these were not National Park activities and this IS a National Park blog. Despite our best efforts to avoid NPUs on this day, we still managed to visit a National Park-affiliated site, the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area. We were all impressed with this possible unit-in-the-making, both in terms of its potential and the dedication and passion of the staff. At the visitor center, we checked out the exhibits and watched a vintage film on the steel-making process. In order to fully immerse ourselves in the film, we all dressed up in the steelmaker's costumes located in a bin next to the TV. Although we are pretty sure that this was against the rules, we got some good pictures nonetheless. Saturday afternoon was spent on the Allegheny River where Kelly's dad keeps his boat. What started as a leisurely river cruise suddenly turned perilous as we realized we were running low on fuel as we approached the raging waters of a dam on the Allegheny. In all honesty, the dam was more of a spillway and we actually made it back to within sight of the dock before we ran out of gas, but it still makes for a good story. 
Sunday was the most NPU-intensive day of the trip. It was also the most depressing as two of our stops were Flight 93 National Memorial and Johnstown Flood National Memorial, sites commemorating two of the deadliest days in American history. Flight 93 was particularly poignant because of the proximity of the event in our lives and the makeshift, personal nature of a still-evolving memorial (see picture to left). Johnstown was obviously more developed, with a fancy visitor center complete with an array of stunning (some may say disturbing) exhibits. In order to appreciate the magnitude of this event, I recommend that all visitors take the Johnstown Incline (touted as the world's steepest incline!) up Yoder Hill to gain a full perspective of the valley and rivers. Also located on this hill is the cemetery in which many of the flood's victims are buried. Again, the perspective gained by walking among tombstones, many of which have the same date of death, is overwhelming. In between our stops at these two tragic sites was a visit to Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site. This NPU interprets a more positive event, the connection of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with a portage arrangement that would allow boats to cross the Allegheny Mountains on a rail system that would interface with the canals on either side of the range. Of course, we arrived here at 4:30 pm and the ranger seemed less than happy to see visitors so close to closing time. Despite the ranger's scowl, we managed to check out the visitor center, walk an interpretive trail, and tour the structures associated with the pulley system that transported the boats up the side of the mountain.
In conclusion, this entry proves that the National Park units of SW Pennsylvania can be successfully during a weekend trip. Keep in mind that there are also stamps for Ohio Pyle State Park and Laurel Ridge State Park (parts of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail) and the Path of Progress National Heritage Area, none of which we obtained on this trip.
