Columbus, Ohio

Mile 5284

We are blogging from a coffee roasters in downtown Columbus, Ohio called Cafe Brioso. They roast their own beans and have free wi-fi. Can't beat that! We spent last night here in Columbus at a Wal-Mart parking lot. Wal-Mart has a policy of letting people park in their lots overnight. Ever wonder why you often see RVs parked at the far end of the parking lot? We've actually used Wal-Mart quite a bit on this trip. We are finally putting some distance between us and our starting point in Maryland. By the end of our first two days on the road, we were still only one state away, Pennsylvania. We have now made it three states away. Granted, the 14 mile strip of West Virginia that we crossed didn't cover much distance, but at least it feels like we've traveled further. Here's how our Sunday went:


Got an early start leaving Harrisburg before 8am and headed straight for Gettysburg. The town around Gettysburg National Military Park is actually very nice. A little on the touristy side, but that is to be expected I suppose. Spent a little time walking around the historical battlefields and some of the town. It is a town that is VERY rich in history. Gettysburg National Cemetery, where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous address, does not allow dogs on its grounds. So we had to settle for taking a snapshot nearby.


Forgot to mention the scenery from yesterday's drive. After getting east of Philadelphia, we stayed off the major freeways for the most part. A lot of the our trip was spent in the Pennsylvania Dutch area, also known as Amish Country. Such a beautiful drive! Can't help but feel a little sorry for the folks riding in their horse and buggies, with cars zipping past them at high rates of speed. The roads are not very wide at all. And some people don't seem to have the courtesy to even slow down as they swerve around those buggies. I guess the Amish must be used to it though. Getting back to the scenery, today's drive around Gettysburg was much the same. Gorgeous! Wheat fields are actually very pretty. "Amber waves of grain?" Again we stayed off the freeway until about the last 100 miles into Pittsburgh. We took this picture in the town of Bedford, just before we jumped onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It's like something you'd find on Route 66. You don't see stuff like this on most interstates.

We should also mention that the weather on this trip overall has been phenomenal. Not hot, humid weather the summer usually brings to the south and east. We only had one bad night on our way out around the Houston area. But the storm the following day cooled the temperatures down pretty well. There was also one day that was supposed to be very bad while we were in Maryland, but even that wasn't as bad as predicted. The weather since we started our way back has been perfect! Sunny and breezy. Not too hot. We've seen a few showers in Pittsburgh and here in Columbus, but nothing to put a damper on things.

Back to the trip. We got into Pittsburgh around 4pm and immediately experienced the worst traffic of the trip so far. The main freeway into the city was closed, so we were detoured. This created a mess, as all the side streets seemed to be backed up as a result. We eventually found our way through the gridlock by travelling through some questionable back street neighborhoods. But we eventually found the downtown area safe and sound.


No, we didn't make an accidental detour to Manhattan. THIS Carnegie Hall is in Pittsburgh and is part of the Carnegie Museum, also founded by Andrew Carnegie. Next to the it, we found a really nice park called Schenley Plaza with plenty of chairs and tables, some eating establishments, and free wireless internet access. Very nice! It was curiously empty considering it was a Sunday, so we had no problem finding a place to sit and relax for awhile, and grab a bite to eat.


After that, we took a drive around the city, first going across the Monongahela River and up Mt. Washington to get an stunning view of the Pittsburgh skyline and the "Three Rivers." After that, we checked out the South Side area which is also separated from downtown Pittsburgh by the Monongahela. Seemed to be a good place to hang out. Lots of restaurants and bars, and people walking around. Then we crossed back over the river to check out the Strip District. This was supposed to be the really happening part of town. We were disappointed to find it almost deserted. Only counted two restaurants that were open. Actually most of downtown Pittsburgh was very quiet for a major metropolitan center. Granted, it was Sunday, but still would expect more from the second largest city in the state. I would have never expected Harrisburg to put Pittsburgh to shame in this regard. That town was definitely the big surprise of the trip up to this point.

We left Pittsburgh around 8pm and got to the West Virginia border at mile 5132 about 45 minutes later. That narrow strip of that state took less than 15 minutes to traverse before to got to Ohio. We crossed half of the state mostly in the dark and got to Columbus close to 11pm where we spent the night.

Drove into Columbus Monday morning at headed straight to the capitol building and found Cafe Brioso about a block away.