Steam Heat…..

July 15 – 17, 2006
It was a bit of a blur crossing New York State through some slow and perilous back roads, and Pennsylvania speedily on the interstate because the heat became tropically oppressive. Conversation was limited to a few curse words from the driver and I had a humungous headache that a Tylenol wouldn’t touch. But we realized that we couldn’t outrun the heat. We looked at the weather map of the country in the USA Today and it was dark red (denoting HOT) all across until we reached the moderate west. So we settled in Bloomsburg, PA (at the WM naturally) and immediately devoured a huge margarita – it helped my headache.

We altered our route when it seemed the heat was only going to continue in the east. Our original course would have taken us through southern Pennsylvania where we were going to try to hook up with some old friends of ours who live just south in Baltimore. Instead, we took the northern route, ending up in Bloomsburg. A spot on a high bluff attracted the breezes to waft through Maggie and we were quite comfortable.

Awaking to overcast skies and an occasional hailstorm, we found the temperatures cooler and hit the day with renewed energy and enthusiasm. Pittsburgh was one of the few eastern cities that we’d never visited and I started making plans for our visit. The Andy Warhol Gallery/Museum in the heart of town – Fallingwater, the Frank Lloyd Wright designed house a couple of hours south – Mount Washington to get the perfect view of the city – The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Heinz Stadium for Fernie ?????

We always chose Walmarts outside the city, feeling that rural town locations are safer than inner-city stores. It also saves Fernie from battling the web of highways endemic to US cities. Butler, PA fit the bill with a Super Walmart and a forest of tall trees beside it, which gave us shade, appreciated because the clouds had dispersed.

It was late afternoon and we tossed Caesar in the car, turned the A/C high and drove into Pittsburgh. A steel town formerly known for its grubby inner-city, it has been renewed into an attractive city core though huge steel plants and other heavy industry still chug away beside the secondary highways outside of town. The overall impression you get when the city opens up ahead of you is ‘red’ – most of the houses are built of red brick. Pittsburgh is located at the intersection of three rivers, the Allegheny, Monongahela and the Ohio, which it is known by from that point on and thus it’s renowned for having more bridges than any other city in the world – other than Venice, Italy.

A sunny summer evening and in the stadium across the river from downtown, a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game was about to start. People were strolling across the pedestrians-only bridge buying candyfloss and hotdogs. It made it a lively and vibrant city.

We took a drive up Mount Washington, a hill topped with houses and restaurants, which weren’t at all upscale. We followed the signs to the city overlook and it was an unimpressive site with no parking. We had to drive along an old residential street and squeeze into a tight spot and walk a couple of blocks back, but the view was stupendous with the perfect smog-free air and the sun lowering in the sky. It’s strange they haven’t improved the viewpoint especially since it’s advertised in the tourist brochure.

In my inimitable way, I said, “Let’s go home another way” even though I didn’t have a map. I have a pretty good sense of direction and memory for locations so I was sure I’d have no problem. We ended up in a ghetto where hoodlums hung out in surly groups outside the projects and they eyed us up as we drove through the 15MPH, speed-bumped, cone-marked ‘Watch out for children playing’ streets. Fernie got extremely nervous and demanded, “Get us outa here”. I responded with “I’ve no idea how, unless you want me to turn around and go back through the creepy streets”. He didn’t think that was a good idea so I ventured on through twisty-turny roads looking for any signs directing us to a major highway.

Fernie yelled, “Pull up here!” and I slid to a halt so he could ask an aging, drugged-up, pony-tailed guy how to find Highway 79. I was amazed at the druggie’s lucidity as he went into a five minute oration of “Go down thataway, turn right, turn left, turn right, turn right, turn left, go along past the Luxury Freeze, turn right, turn left, go across the bridge, turn left, go along until you see signs to Hwy 79”. It was totally impossible to remember but as he was talking, I got a general picture of the direction. It took us a while but we found our way out of the maze eventually to highway 79 and home to Butler, getting there just before dark.

Next morning, our plans changed. We couldn’t leave Caesar in the motorhome – it was too damned hot at 8am so forget Andy Warhol, forget Frank Lloyd Wright.

The ominous weather warnings from the media made us shudder. “Hottest days of the year” – “Temperatures soaring” – “If you don’t have AC, go to the mall” – “Record-breaking heat”. We were already finding it unbearable and it was only going to get worse. So we headed up to Lake Erie figuring a campsite near the lake might help us cope. We were disappointed at Pennsylvania’s attitude of “No Pets” in their state campsites but we found that Ohio is more dog-friendly. Midway between Cleveland and Detroit, a lovely, treed space at East Harbour State Park with electrical hook-up to run our A/C helped us beat the heat.

We stayed two days, cranked the A/C to ‘frigid’ inside, stretched out in our lounges outside in the shade, sipped margaritas, munched on strawberries, cherries and peaches, took endless showers and talked about how Vancouver must be the best place in the world to live. We ventured out only once to do laundry, find wifi and buy groceries. The heat in the shopping centre parking lot was like a wall of fire as we got out of our cool car. How do people live here?

My planned visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland was cancelled......I wonder if our darn dog knows what we give up for him.