Dad and I had previously scouted the first half of our ride through South Park and onto the Montour trail to McKeesport by bicycle, so we weren't worried about getting lost. However, this time we did have some gear, some of which had been recently modified or "improved". Traffic on the public roads wasn't too bad but enough that I didn't stop to take any pictures.
We were pleased leave suburban streets to turn onto the Montour trail.
A favorite story in our family is how my father first met our mother at a skating rink (we even knew what kind of dress she was wearing). I was never actually certain of where this place of personally significant history was located, perhaps because the skating rink had been replaced by a Foodland store. Here, my Dad reflected on how much he missed Mother....actually we had just left her two hours ago. Still, it makes a good picture.
Empty abandoned factories can appear to be a symbol of a tremendously depressed area, but much of the Pittsburgh area has reinvented itself and is in the midst of renewal.
Another great story is our family deals with the time my father drove across a bridge over the Monongahela river with a mattress tied to the top of his car. After crossing the river he discovered the mattress was gone. He retraced his route, at one point stopping in a bar asking if anybody had seen the mattress. You can imagine the guys in the bar suspected he may have lost the mattress in another bar down the road. When we found this mattress drying on the guardrail, we checked to see if it was the one lost half a century ago.
We met these folks standing on the trail. The man saw Dad bicycling by and recognized him from an encounter the previous year... it may have been Dad's distinctive bicycling garb, or perhaps something about his bicycle... hmmmm.
Our stay was at a Comfort Inn on Rt. 51 which required us to cycle up a hill out of the river valley. The lady at the desk was very welcoming, even directing us to an outside hose where we could clean the bikes off. The room was great.
