From: John Freeman [johnfree@pacbell.net]

Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2000 9:29 PM

Subject: Indianapolis - Binghamton NY

 

(the family visit part is harder to write, so I'm just skipping it for now)

 

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Monday Oct 2� Indy - Dayton - Columbus - Buckeye Lake

 

Remembering Mark Twain's oh so true dictum that guests and fish start to smell after three days, I'm getting out just in the nick of time!�

 

Sweet guy that he is, Doug gave me a CSX Railroad hat and a very cool railroad lantern to take with me.� Over the last 30-ish years all the traditional rail companies with evocative names like Monon, Southern, Baltimore and Ohio, ... have all one by one merged into a behemoth with the un-romantic name of CSX.� Doug's worked for CSX (for 32 years), as did his dad and our uncle Temple.

 

I-70 is truck after truck after truck after .......

 

A kind of interesting phenomenon is the proliferation and variety of Christian rock stations.� Used to be it would take about three bars to recognize that dreck and you could hit that scan button again.� But on the this trip I've been noticing that it's gotten a lot more polished.� There was a Christian rock station out of Columbus today that was much better at the teenage rebellion thing than lame-o's such as Live 105.� I would actually give it a radio button if I had the misfortune to spend time in Columbus.� The coolest song was a catchy little rap number called 'God is Big' that was killa! (really!)� The strangest thing was a kid talking about tearing her ACL, and then instead of being an ad for Dr Bob's Sports Medicine Clinic, she went on to say that she went to a party and someone prayed over her leg and it got better.

 

 

Tuesday Oct 3� Buckeye Lake - Wheeling - Pittsburgh - Kane, PA

 

It's starting to feel like a vacation today!

 

First more I-70, then whizzing through Wheeling, wihch from the road is funky 2-3 story clapboard houses with big front porches clustered on the steep hillsides, all with a thick layer of grime.

 

Then picking my way through the Pittsburgh freeway maze.� The main bridge was closed, so I took something called the West End Bridge.� This gave a sparkling view of downtown, which is built in the crotch of the Y formed when the Monongahela and the Allegheny rivers meet to form the Ohio River.� It's a very pretty city and looked like it would be fun to spent time in.

 

Now I'm on two lane roads heading to the top of the Pennsylvania and US 6, which my AAA map says is very scenic.

 

Since leaving Indy, the leaves have been slowly turning, but since I hit the wilds of western PA, they have been crazy!� I guess I've forgotten how cool a real fall is.� It's really very pleasant over here.� Still wife-beater warm today!

 

Pulled in for the night at Kane NY, Black Cherry Capitol of the World and Home of Chuck Daly.� The best sign that I'm touring rather than getting somewhere is that I actually stopped well before dark today -- I had time to take a little hike in the woods, which rocked my world after all that driving.

 

 

Wed 10/4� Kane, PA - Binghamton, NY

 

Got woke up about dawn by a raging thunderstorm.� I'd left the window open and it was cool to listen to the thunder echoing through the hills.� I had more good weather luck, as the second line of severe thunderstorms (certified as such by the Weather Channel :) passed through about 9 AM, leaving the day overcast but mostly dry.�

 

More proof that I'm on vacation now, I saw my first site!� A place called Kinzua State Park, starring an old railroad bridge that was built across the Kinzua River valley in the 1880's to haul coal to Buffalo.� It's 300 feet high in the middle and you can walk across it, balancing on the tracks, looking down between the railroad ties and your feet straight down and getting giddy on acrophobia and just having a fine time.

 

Oh yeah, there was a covey (herd, flock, coven?) of wild turkeys on the little road to the park.� Coulda been the national bird if Ben Franklin had his way!

 

The reds in the maple trees around here are amazing.

 

Even though Binghamton (shouldn't it be Binghampton?) is about 120 miles inland, I'm getting that gritty, surly Eastern seaboard feeling already -- yeech.