So as we leave Lin (our hostess) at the Yough Shore Manor, I acquired one more piece of valuable info to live my life....
n case you forgot who the blog is about
And the trail
and more trail
oooh look at the leaves on the trail
The trail was great, really beautiful scenery. Had a river near us all the time. mostly blocked by forest and brush though......AND now the fun part!!!!!! Industrial stuff, including LOTSA Bridges!!!!!!
Recycling Pittsburgh style (note: get scale from train,,,,)
McKeesport - boats AND a bridge
We coulda beat this train, the crossing gates were down, but we had plenty of room.....actually if you know Barb we couldn't beat the train. (please note I stopped, got my camera out, turned it on and the train hadn't crossed). But is was fun, we got to watch 15 minutes of train pass.
including lots of tractors
on the trail again....and more bridges
Steel mills still working
Monongahela River
Locks and dam. I couldn't get a good view of the dam, but I believe the blue rods are the hydraulics for lifting the barrel gates.
PAVED TRAIL!!!!!
This is what they do with left over steel
a working mill
Some gal I met along the way...having too much fun
Close up of the coal pile two pictures up
And a classic Barb shot, like a homing pigeon!!!!!! she hadn't seen a Starbucks in weeks
This is a piece of memorabilia left along the river. it was the gantry crane at a previous water treatment plant. The plant was built to stop the dumping of scale, a hot oily byproduct, directly into the river. The recorded a river temperature rise of 40 degrees at times!!!!!
And this is how they get their coal
Crossing the Monongahela on the Hot Metal Bridge. From what I understand hot ingots were shipped by rail across this bridge from one facility to the next.
Downtown Pittsburgh
Three Rivers Stadium from the Point
The Point from the other side of the river
Barb and a Bridge!
We were on our way to visit Barbs college friend Maggie and her husband John. Maggie had sent up directions on how to get to their house....then we met this nice lady who gave a "better" directions. it really seemed better as we were able to stay on trails longer instead of on city streets in rush hour. The trail was paved, then compact dirt.....then large gravel. we decided to walk the last mile as the large gravel was hard on the loaded bikes.......
BUT there was a silver lining.... I had always heard that the railroad had switched to quarter mile long rails to eliminate joints, but I had never seen them......well, now I have. the rails seen in the picture above is only the back 2/3rds of the rails. Of course where we were to cross was at about mid rail so no such luck. Finally a worker informed us they would move the train in about 15 minutes, so we waited. While waiting we got to hear them slide the rails to the back.....does fingernails on a blackboard mean anything to you????
On last bridge, then off to Maggie and Johns, and it turns out their son Tom lives with them so we got to see them too. I must say, from Greensboro to Maine to Rhode Island to State College when we visited friends it was always great hospitality, this was no different. Of course we arrived on pasta night, almost as if we had planned it :>) Visiting with old friends and good night!
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