Schenley Park was a hive of activity the following morning, with parents pushing their children in strollers, friends out jogging, and people driving around the city. It was so hectic that when Lisette opened the RV door to take Sheila for a morning walk, she bumped into two people walking with picnic chairs slung over their shoulders, maneuvering around a family where the dad was teaching his young kid how to ride a bike while the mom lingered behind with the other child... and there was another woman waiting to walk past all of them in the opposite direction! Busy busy Saturday!
We left the park for a brief stop at The Fence, the most painted-on object in the world. The graduating class of 1923 first starting painting it, and this tradition continued for 70 years until it collapsed under the weight of the painted layers. Today, the fence has been reinforced with steel, so that the painting tradition can go on.
Pittsburgh's Steel History
Most people in the US will associate Pittsburgh with steel, so naturally we checked out Carrie Furnace, a retired blast furnace in industrial town of Swissvale, which were built in 1884 and operated until 1982. The furnaces were massive looked really formidable, like we're sure they were back in Pittsburgh's steel heyday. It turns out that while the furnaces are no longer in use, there are tours available that take 1.5 hours, and they also hold festivals and events, and offer cool workshops--including interactive graffiti art, metal casting and blacksmithing programs! There are a variety of tours, but the general admission tour costs $26. While we would've loved to have done this tour, we're being more picky with the tours that we do (as if we did all the museums, we'd run out of time and go way over budget)! Having said that, Pittsburgh has been a pleasant surprise for us as a city to visit, so maybe if we come back one day...!
Instead, we headed downtown, and that in itself was a challenge! Some of the streets in Pittsburgh are not only very steep, but also super narrow, with sharp turns that make it exceedingly difficult to drive around. Our GPS had suggested that we drive into a tunnel to get across to the other side, but the turn was way too sharp for us to enter. So we ended up driving around it to try and attack it front-on from the other street, only to see that traffic was bumper-to-bumper and we'd never be able to get in, as cars were already hanging off the corners to squeeze in!
Downtown Highlights
Eventually, we were able to find another route, seeing the Snoopy's Doghouse, a cute sculpture of Snoopy sleeping on top of his famed doghouse from the "Peanuts" comics, which was fortunately still there (apparently it's been stolen a couple of times). We then ran over to nearby Fort Pitt Block House, built in 1764 by British forces between 1759 and 1761 during the French and Indian War. It's the only surviving structure of Fort Pitt, Pittsburgh's oldest architectural landmark. We could also go inside and see some of the artifacts and read more about the history of the fort. There was a man working inside, Paul, who we talked to for a bit; he taught us some Pennsylvania slang words like "slippy" (slippery) and "jagoff" (someone who is a jerk). He also took our photo for their social media page, so maybe we'll be somewhat famous!
We drove past PNC Park, the stadium that's home to Pittsburgh's baseball team, the Pirates (were there pirates in Pennsylvania, or was this just named because it's alliteration?), before arriving at reCARstruction, a 9-foot spherical outdoor artwork that's made out of pieces from an old Jeep. It's in the parking lot outside the Pittsburgh Children's Museum, which also has some almost equally quirky sculptures of 3 random fish! The Andy Warhol Museum is also nearby (and up until this point we had no idea that he was born in Pittsburgh!). We didn't go into the museum, but let's add this to yet another reason to come back!
More Art and Quirky Attractions
For more art, we got a full dosage at Randyland, an art museum that's an explosion of color. The home is on the corner, and while the website does say something about tickets, it's actually a free museum/home to wander around in: a primarily bright yellow, 3-story building that is filled to the brim with plants, bright upcycled artwork (flowers, animals, patterns, you name it), and positive quotes and sayings, filled with welcoming and inclusive words.
While we were there we saw Randy Gilson, who was standing outside the building, giving a bit of a speech to a group of tourists. He was a beacon of positivity, talking about how we are defined by the obstacles that we face (and how we overcome them), and providing other words of wisdom and experience. Randyland was a former homeless activist, who purchased the property that would become Randyland in 1995. His partner, Mac, passed away in 2019, and he was recognized posthumously as a co-founder, who contributed immensely to what Randyland is today.
We drove to Casey Industrial Park (where we even saw another Randyland artwork here!), seeing a couple of other eclectic stores: Johnny Angel's Ginchy Stuff, a collectibles store that has all sorts of music memorabilia and a mural of musical greats outside (Buddy Holly and Elvis are a couple of performers who feature). Next to this is Bicycle Heaven, apparently the largest bicycle museum in the world. It costs $15 to tour the museum, so we had to contend ourselves with a photo of the bikes we saw when we entered (there are a lot though!)
Our last stop in Pittsburgh was the Telephone of the Wind, located in a small courtyard behind the Maple Leaf, an art center (it was hard to find initially, as the GPS coordinates led us to a parking lot in a small side street, but we had to enter through the art center building). It turns out that these telephones exist all over the world--the concept is somewhat sad and sweet, an actual telephone that can be used to leave a message/say goodbye to someone you've lost, and tell them what you never got to say.
Oh Hi again, Ohio!
While our time in Pittsburgh was brief, we would definitely go come back! We found people to be friendly and courteous (including on the roads despite the narrow streets and traffic--can't say the same for some cities we've been to!), the history and sights fascinating, and we would have loved to explore more places in a car, as driving in an RV made some things more difficult to see. We'll have to take note after this trip of which places make the 'we'd go back' list!
After Pittsburgh, it was a long, long drive going back to Ohio. To break up the trip, we stopped in the city of Warren, where we visited Dave Grohl Alley, an alley dedicated to the Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer, who it turns out was born in Warren. The alley has a lot of graffiti art of Dave Grohl, a statue of him thrashing it out on the drums, a kind "thank you" message from him to his city wearing a "Made in Warren" t-shirt, and the world's largest drumsticks, made out of poplar wood, measuring 23 feet (over 7 meters) in length and weighing a half-ton each.
Another attraction for a hometown hero was Neil Armstrong's First Flight Location, a small park where he embarked on his first flight in a Ford Tri-Motor airplane. It turns out that Neil Armstrong was born in Ohio and raised in Warren, and 33 years after his first flight, he made history by being the first man to walk on the moon. The park is not only a celebration of him and his success, but also an inspirational site reminding people to follow their dreams.
Hiking to Squaw Rock
Our final stop for the evening was Squaw Rock/Henry Church Jr., Rock, which ended up being a short but lovely hike through the South Chagrin Reservation. We could see beautiful signs of fall all around the park, with leaves fluttering down to the ground like snowflakes, and the leaves on trees a multitude of green, yellow, orange, red and brown colors.
The hike was peaceful, walking along the Chagrin River--it's a looped path that leads down some steps to where we could see the rock, which depicts an Native American Indian woman, the four phases of the moon, a serpent and a few other images. We did a small hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park recently but we haven't done many others for a while, so with the weather becoming cooler this walk was really enjoyable (and hopefully we'll find more opportunities to do so soon)!
In the evening, we found a stop just near... Cracker Barrel! It seems to be the place to be on this leg of the trip. There were a couple of other RVs already parked, including a man who looked like he had made himself right at home, with his laundry drying on a rack outside his door! There was also a decent sized bit of greenery nearby, apparently for some corporate employees to walk around during their breaks, but as it was a Saturday we got to walk with Sheila and have the place to ourselves. Unfortunately there was a railway track right next to us (it's probably rarer to NOT live by these cargo trains, they are everywhere), but otherwise, no issues!