Warhol in Pittsburgh

The woman in the Visitor Information Centre who very kindly opened up early when she saw us waiting outside to pick up a map of the city, thought we were Australian. Another warm day and it was time for some culture so we walked across the Andy Warhol Bridge to the museum. The downtown area seems to have been renovated since my last visit several years ago.

View from Andy Warhol Bridge 1 Pittsburg 28 June 2016-1
Waiting for the museum to open I spotted an American Robin feeding in the bushes alongside the river but did not have time to photograph him before he disappeared from site. Canada geese were on the river and we saw a rabbit on the grass. There appears to be plenty of wildlife in central Pittsburgh.
Foyer Warhol Museum Pittsburg 28 June 2016-1
The museum is well worth a visit, especially on a weekday morning when it was very quiet. I learnt a lot I did not know about his early life, his love of taxidermy (there is a lion and a Great Dane in the museum) and his hoarding of objects in time capsules. Starting on the seventh floor, you descend in chronological order through his work in a variety of media including painting, photography, film and other installations.
Installation Warhol Museum Pittsburg 28 June 2016-1
The museum also has work by Ai WeiWei, some of which I have seen before in the UK but others that I had not.
Installation Ai WeiWei Warhol Museum Pittsburg 28 June 2016-1
Afterwards we sat in the market area with a cold drink watching the world go by. Now it’s time to plan the route out of the city and into the next state tomorrow.

Philadelphia to Pittsburgh

While packing the car this morning I noticed this street art across the road from the car park.
Street Art 27 June 2016-1

After wending our way around the one-way system we were finally on Lancaster Avenue, the road out of town towards R30 which is the 1913 route of the Lincoln Highway through mainstreet America. We passed through some of the more down at heel parts of the city but once we crossed the county line into leafy Montgomery County there were plenty of mansions, Whole Foods Markets, Audi garages and adverts for yoga classes. R30 runs alongside the railway for much of the route and one train passed us.
Amtrak 27 June 2016-1
In Exton, we saw the first cornfield of the trip (many more to come) and were soon in Lancaster County where Dutch barns and Amish farmers are a-plenty. Today’s best roadside sign was one for a balanced diet: a doughnut in each hand. Our coffee stop was at the Route 30 diner.
In Columbia we stopped just before crossing the Susquehanna River and seeing I was taking photographs, a local guy came over for a chat. He thought we were Australian, said that he was a Vietnam veteran and advised me about other good photography spots. The French usually think we are Dutch; the Spanish assume we are German so Australian is a new one! The concrete bridge we crossed was built in the 1930s by veterans and was a great alternative to the four-lane R30 one upstream.
Bridge over Susquehann River 27 June 2016-1
In York we saw adverts for a gun fair that had taken place yesterday. Our lunch stop was Gettysburg which is full of history. I was slightly surprised to see a collection of musical instruments alongside shells, guns and other weapons. On the way down to the visitors’ centre I was enjoying the natural history: listening to the insects and birds in the surrounding woodland and enjoying the wild flowers.
Wildflower 2 Gettysberg 27 June 2016-1
Further exploration of the battlefields was curtailed by a heavy downpour. At this point James remembered that he had left his waterproof and a jacket in the airport hotel in New York and is currently trying to arrange for it to be sent to us in Denver. Between Gettysburg and Fayetteville, we crossed the Appalachian Trail (I started thinking about long walks) and the rain stopped. After Chambersburg, we could see hills on the horizon and were obviously in a big fruit-growing area. The road then continued up the wooded hills and we achieved another first for the trip: the first summit: Tuscarora at 2123ft in the Appalachians. All the communities we drove through had derelict houses, defunct businesses and rusting vehicles lying in the yard. The forested hills reminded me of Perthshire in Scotland where I grew up and we crossed another three summits before we reached Pittsburgh: Sideling Hill (2195ft), Bald Knob (2906ft) in the Allegheny Mountains and Laurel Hill (2684ft). We passed the Flight 93 Memorial and at Stoyston Auto Wreckers saw huge fields – acres of scrapped cars. The other first today was signs of the American election, absent yesterday but appearing today in the form of several Trump posters, the first in Jennerstown. Eventually we descended into Pittsburgh.
Tunnel into Pittsburg 27 June 2016-1

New York to Philadelphia

An early start and Sunday morning meant that the roads were fairly quiet as we crossed over to Manhattan via the Midtown Tunnel to drive the one mile of the Lincoln Highway that is in New York before we cross into New Jersey by the Lincoln Tunnel. Despite it being quiet, there were still quite a few aggressive drivers about and two taxis had the misfortune to collide right in front of the police who were directing traffic around some barriers that they were setting up for an event. It’s hard to believe that New Jersey is the Garden State at first given the industrial landscape and all the concrete surrounding the roads emerging from the tunnel. The Highway has had various routes here over the years on different streets, Routes 1 and 9 so navigation can be quite tricky.
New Jersey landscape 26 Jun 2016-1

New Jersey landscape 2 26 Jun 2016-1

After Newark it takes R27 and passes through Kingston which was settled in 1675 and is near Rockingham Historic Site; George Washington’s headquarters in 1783. It did not open until later on Sunday so we could not see inside the house but wandered around the grounds.
Rockingham Historic Site Kingston 26 Jun 2016-1

Kingston is also close to a lock on the Delaware & Raritan Canal. It was dug by Irish labourers between 1830 and 1834. It is now used for walking, cycling fishing and other leisure pursuits. Here are some flowers beside it.
Flowers by Delaware & Raritan Canal Kingston 26 Jun 2016-1
Our lunch stop was Princeton which is roughly halfway between New York and Philadelphia. It has a lake, some gothic buildings and was pretty busy with people enjoying the good weather (the car thermometer was now reading 90 degrees). The place we ate our picnic was next to a memorial and had a few sculptures. A Chinese family were taking numerous photographs of each other standing next to a bust of Einstein. Labyrinth Books sells new, used, remainder and a few antiquarian books and the Princeton Record Exchange is a great place for music lovers. However, unless I want to incur excess baggage charges, I am having to be very strict about purchases.
Princeton 26 June 2016-1
Further on we crossed the Calhoun St Bridge built in 1884, crossing the Delaware River with a 15 mph speed limit and entering our third state of the day, Pennsylvania.
Calhoun St Bridge Trenton 26 June 2016-1
So far, the best road-side sign of the day was for ‘Payless Memorials’. Perhaps cut-price gravestones are in less demand in the UK as cremation is more popular? We arrived in Philadelphia early afternoon and wandered around the Old City and down to the river before a relaxing evening. At least I will only need one state map not three, tomorrow. We have given up on the SatNav as it persists in trying to send us to the turnpikes and interstates.
Waterfront Philadelphia 26 June 2016-1