Wednesday, July 25, 2012

July 25th
Our last night at the Fox Den Campground, we've seen so many people come and go in the past week, we feel like regulars here.  The local camp cat, with no tail, even comes over and hangs out on our step, our guy Marley doesn't get too excited.
Since the last post, we have wandered around a couple of the local towns, Scottdale and Connellsville.  Downtown Scottsdale has a post office with original painted murals from 1936, an old seedy looking Hotel, a few nice shops, several vacant shops, a railroad running through it, a mining history, a mining tragedy (107) miners died in 1899 mine explosion nearby) and a modern "miracle mile" area.  It also has a "Sheetz" convenience store, they are the hot thing here in PA, always busy 24/7.
Downtown Connellsville has much history also, it has a Carnegie library (we peaked inside), an impressive old Mason Hall (seen better days, with rough looking people hanging outside), lots of vacant shops, an abundance of overweight young women with bad tattoos and this enormous old condemned brick furniture building (Aaron's).
After that to get some fresh air , we headed to the Laurel Highlands to visit "Falling Waters", the famous house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house was spectacular in it's setting, perched over a waterfall and in it's integration into the surrounding forest and especially the vast outside patio areas.   Personally, I was not so impressed with the house interior.
We then went up the road to the town of Ohiopyle which is a Mecca for biking and water sports as there is a rail trail that goes for a few hundred miles and a great fast flowing rapid strewn river.We went hiking looking for the big waterfall, in the wrong direction for miles, got caught in a thunderstorm, got wet, then found the waterfall almost next to our parking spot.  We then found a nice bar in town and had a beer, seems like everything ends that way !
 I have many photos to share, but am in the middle of trying to transfer my old photoshop catalog from the old windows PC to the new Apple PC, I thought it would be easy, actually I thought Sue (Twinkles) would know just what to do, Ha!
We move tomorrow to Mill Creek Campground on Berlin Lake, Ohio, another Army Corp of Engineers flood control project site.
More will be revealed, good night.

Aaron's Store in Connellsville, PA

Downtown Scottdale PA in times past

The "Bird boy of Scottdale" early aviator lost on trans-Atlantic flight

Butterfly at Ohiopyle

Rail Trail at Ohiopyle

Rail trail over the river

The Ohiopyle Falls

View from the river

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