HoJo's

 Whenever my parents and I took a trip across the state to visit relatives, our route was along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. At each of the service plazas was an easily recognizable restaurant, Howard Johnson’s. While we rarely stopped at any of these plazas, other than to use the bathrooms, we passed lots of HoJo’s in our travels.

    The restaurants along the turnpike were housed in attractive stone buildings but the Howard Johnson’s on other roads usually had that distinctive shape and orange colored roof. You knew what they were before you even saw the sign.

    The company started in the 1920’s, opening its first restaurant in Quincy, Massachusetts. In the mid-50’s they opened their first Motor Lodge. The company used to be huge, in 1965 its sales exceeded McDonalds, Burger King and KFC combined. Sadly, this wouldn’t last. Fast food claimed the prize eventually. Howard Johnson’s had over 1000 restaurants and 500 motor lodges before their success started to wither. 

    I can remember going there for my birthday. I think I looked forward to the fried clams more than their 28 flavors of ice cream!

    The chain was bought and over time the iconic buildings started to disappear or change purpose. As of 2018 there was only one restaurant with the Howard Johnson name on it, located in Lake George, New York.

    In Hampton Township there are the remains of what used to be a HoJo Motor Lodge. Once being visible from the turnpike exit it is now hidden from view by tall trees and weeds. When exactly it closed, I’m not sure but in 2012 it had been approved by the township to be rebuilt and reopened. That never came to be. 

    It sits beside a closed Max and Erma’s restaurant. The motel is covered with plywood to keep scavengers and vandals out. This hasn’t worked since some of the wood has been torn off and the sliding glass doors broken. The rooms and furniture are exposed to the weather and the openings provide easy access to the insides. I stayed outside since there are No Trespassing signs posted on the building. I did look inside though.

Vines and weeds covered the balconies.

Guests would have to search for their room numbers!

    The lodge provided top of the line technologies as the satellite dish shows. Looking at this site takes us back to another time, the days of traveling and pulling into a motel to get some rest, often without even calling for a reservation. Motels scattered alongside the roads, often owned by the families that cleaned them and lived in the house next door.

    Many were just 5-10 rooms with the bare essentials, a place to sit your bags, a bed and a bathroom. If you were lucky there would be a “color” TV! Hanging by the road would be a flashing Vacancy sign. Of course, the locals used these rooms also. There is no need to go into any details about that here, we’ve all heard the stories. (I’m not talking about the stories where you’d wake up in a bathtub full of ice and missing a kidney!)

    Chances are that this place is destined to be torn down and a new, multi storied, corporate hotel will take its place. For now, it is a reminder of what used to be and another thing that is slowly disappearing from our lives.

A Little Bit of History

 Doris Day…Can you believe it? It was Doris Day! She was looking out the window of the hotel along with a bunch of other patrons. They were watching a movie that was being filmed outside. I was there, beside the camera. Turning to look at the actors, I noticed that she was now standing beside me. There was no mistake, it was her!

    Together we went over to a red Karmann-Ghia convertible, with the top down of course, and drove away. It was right about then that I woke up. Just a few minutes before midnight, it was still Monday. I wanted to go back to that dream but it wasn’t to be. I tossed and turned.

    Finally the alarm went off, a soft gentle blues tune playing. I opened my eyes and discovered that I was holding a cup of coffee in my hand. I must’ve fallen asleep with it.  Feeling around, I realized nothing had spilt. There was still coffee in it, I could smell it. Probably pretty cold by now I thought.

    I swung my legs out of bed, without spilling anything and instinctively took a sip. It was hot and it tasted wonderful! Wow! I looked at the alarm and wondered why it was playing music, for that matter, the blues. Why hadn’t my phone alarm gone off? They were both set for the same time! It suddenly dawned on me and I exclaimed “Because, I’m dreaming!” and then started to laugh. That was when I woke up the second time, laughing no less!

    It was 4:00, the alarm was set for 4:30. No sense going back to bed. I’ll get up and jump into the shower and start the day. I was going to leave for Frank’s house at 5:30. I’d have time for breakfast and some coffee. We had some caches to find!

    Looking outside, I saw stars! Making the shower extremely quick, I grabbed my gear and drove to the near-by hilltop. The Moon was fairly high in the sky and off to the left was Mars and Jupiter. 

    Combined with the thin clouds and the brightness of the Moon, a group shot wasn’t possible. I took a few pictures and returned back home for a quick breakfast and made some coffee to sip on the way. I still made it to Frank’s house 10 minutes earlier than planned.

    We had 8 caches to find, 5 were in the Blairsville area. The first one, hidden in a tree alongside the road went well. It took us a few minutes, but we found it. The next one didn’t go quite as we had planned.

    Hidden near Dean’s Diner, it is a cache that I have looked for numerous times. We searched high and low without any luck. Some caches just aren’t meant to be found, this one is one of them! We went inside and got some coffee and something to eat and then looked some more. Nope, it wasn’t there.

    We did a few in the town but by far, the best one was across the river in what used to be Cokeville.

    A small town used to sit here but now it is mostly weeds. A long time ago, there were coke ovens on the hill here. (I don’t believe they are still there, that will be another adventure!) The houses and businesses were removed when the Canamaugh Dam was built.

     A set of cement stairs leads up to a flat spot where a house used to sit. You can see where a driveway used to be between them and the tree. Small trees grow where the houses used to sit. By looking carefully, we could see other remnants that were left behind, most of them, nearly hidden from view.

Blairsville and the bridge in 1908

    Bits of a roadway lead to the foundation of the old bridge. Who knows what else lies underneath the weeds? The Pennsylvania Canal crossed through this section of land, there might be evidence of it somewhere!

After the St. Patrick’s Day Flood in 1936, a new bridge was built. A lot of the houses in the town were destroyed by the high waters.

    It took some scrambling around with a little hill climbing through brambles and jagger bushes, before Frank found the cache. It was hidden in the notch of a tree.  We had found this cache in 2011, it isn't in the same place now. It was the toughest cache of the day but it was also the most satisfying one!

    We did a couple more in the area and then turned back towards home. Out of 9 caches, we found 7. Not bad for a quick morning hunt.

    Back on rt.22, we were surprised to see that it was only a little past 10. We usually end up returning in the early afternoon. We were home in time for lunch and afternoon chores. It was a great morning; I always enjoy looking for caches with Frank but finding a little bit of history made it even better! 

    As for the caches we missed…Que sera, sera!

The Heron

 I had taken a run to the library to pick up some books that I had ordered and on the way home, I drove past the section of Pine Creek that parallels Bryant Road.  Since I had some new books to read, I pulled over and opened one up. Out of the corner of my eye I saw two large birds take flight from the stream below me.  Turning I saw a couple beautiful herons flying away from me. Smiling, I returned to my book.

    After a chapter or two I decided to take a stroll on the path alongside the stream. I went in the direction that the herons had headed. I brought my camera with a telephoto lens attached, just in case!  It was a nice warm, sunny day, a perfect day for a walk. I followed the RR tracks for a while and then moved closer to the stream to see if I could locate them. As soon as I approached the bank, a heron took off, going further upstream. I slowly followed only to scare the second bird into flight.

     The first bird joined it and they headed back down towards where they had originally been. This time though, a third heron joined them. I don’t recall ever seeing three herons here before; they normally tend to hunt alone. I turned around and followed.

    I passed a fisherman on the way. A brief hello and I continued on, going from the bank to the path above the water line and back again. I figured the heron was either in the water or on a tree branch. Scanning both as I walked, I was careful not to slip in the mud or trip on any of the roots or branches which lay in my path.

    In a tree, directly overhead, he squawked and flew further downstream. I hadn’t seen him but he sure saw me. His call was loud and being right above my head, rather frightening. It sounded guttural; it didn’t match the beauty of the bird. I tried to see where he landed and tried to keep him in sight as I crept forward. 

    Moving beneath a low lying branch, I spotted him. A Great Blue Heron, what a spectacular looking bird! I’m pretty sure it was a male; they often have a bit of plumage on top of their head. When the breeze blew, I could see it ruffle along with the long, beautiful feathers on his chest. I know he saw me; herons are very smart birds and have very good eyesight. I figured he would fly away as I neared him so I continued to take pictures on the way. He chose to ignore me. I eventually moved into a clearing across the stream, he acted as if I wasn’t there. 

    Eventually, after getting more pictures than I needed, I turned to continue on the path and he gathered his wings and dropped off his perch and flew back upstream. I followed the path until it met up with the RR tracks and then returned back to the car.

    Surprise, surprise, the heron had flown to a spot in the stream directly below my car. Of course, he heard me long before I saw him. I caught him as he flew over to an old bridge abutment. Standing on it he posed for me.

    I kept taking pictures as I neared him and once again, he ignored me. I got to the bridge pier across the stream from him and other than looking at me once or twice; he acted as if I wasn’t there. 

    I’d taken enough shots of him so I just sat down on the cement and watched for a couple minutes. These birds can stand over 4 feet tall yet weigh only 5 or 6 pounds. He kept looking at the stream, often not moving for a minute or two. His chest was facing me, giving me a good look at the long flowing feathers there.

    Getting up, I said “I’m leaving now, thanks for the shots.” Almost as if he knew what I was saying he spread his wings and flew back towards where the car was parked. After a couple more shots of him in the grass beside the creek, I went to get into my car.

    Opening the door, I saw him fly across the field, heading further upstream. Our time together was over.

    Driving back home I was thinking about my experience. I have seen herons many times and almost every time I saw them, they flew away. I’ve gotten shots of them catching and eating fish, but they were taken from across a lake. They have a way of flying away right as I bring the camera up to shoot. I don’t know why this one put up with me but I was glad he did. Maybe he was keeping me away from the two other herons I saw, maybe they were just fledglings? Whatever the case may be, I treasure the experience. It’s things like this, these little bits of excitement, these little glimpses of how wildlife looks and acts, up close, that make me happy to be alive and sharing their world!

A Special Day

Today has always been special to me. I’ve always looked forward to it! This morning, it started out around 3:45 as my alarm rudely awakened me from a great dream. Looking out the window, I saw darkness. Opening the door and stepping outside, I was treated to a view of numerous stars in a cloud free sky.

    Oh Yes!!

    I could’ve set up the telescope but I thought watching the planets come up over the horizon might be a better, and easier, way to go. I opted for a short drive to the near-by hill top with the camera, tripod and my binoculars. The view there is always superior to my front yard.

    About 20 minutes later with a warm drink in hand I was parking the car. It was quiet and there were stars everywhere. My observing spot is fairly light free. I could see stars pretty low to the horizon and that’s tough here in Shaler!

    I set up the camera and took a couple test shots and then scanned the stars with my binoculars. The moon had set about an hour before I arrived so there were no problems with it hiding the stars.

    Jupiter had just risen above the horizon when I arrived and Venus would soon be breaking out so I concentrated on that section of the hillside. It was easy to see where it would be rising, the other three planets, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter made a straight line right to where it would be showing up.

    Venus showed up a couple minutes after its predicted time of arrival. Suddenly…there it was behind the trees and then it was shining free. It is amazing how quickly they rise when you have a reference point to compare them to! I snapped a few shots and then went back to exploring the sky with the binoculars

    As the sky brightened, the International Space Station passed off in the north. I had hoped it would be close enough to Venus to get a picture but by then the sky was too bright. Watching it in binoculars would just have to do.

    The birds were starting to wake up, soon joggers would be out and I was ready to refill my coffee cup. I made it home in time to see the sunrise.

    I said this day was special to me. It isn’t because of the stars or the planets. Not even the ISS made it special. It’s because on this day my daughter Chelsey was born!

    She just had a new son, Nico, who arrived a couple days before Mothers Day and her birthday. Yes, I’d have to say that our lives are truly blessed. It’s going to be a great day. This day always is!

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Independent Bookstore Day

     It was the last day of April. What made this day special was that it is Independent Bookstore Day. Ann Marie, Kelle, Frank and I were going to visit a couple of our favorite stores and hopefully we would be coming back with lots to read.

    Getting on the road early we had some time before the stores opened, so we did a geocache in a small local park. I had attempted this cache several times before, Frank found it almost immediately. It helps to have someone with a good set of eyes to help you search! Since it was found so quickly, we still had time before our bookstore adventures started. We took a short hike in Riverview Park to see the ruins of the zoo.

    When Riverview Park was first built, it had a small zoo with an elk paddock, a bear enclosure along with some other small cages. A merry-go-round was also set in the park. 

    All that remains today are the brick foundations of some of the cages, set along a large stone wall. They are situated on what used to be a road, now it is only a simple dirt trail going past what used to entertain the people of Pittsburgh.

    Our first bookstore was City Books located in the city’s Northside. Arlan, the owner was already busy handling customers when we arrived. (Masks were required at all the shops we visited.) I can’t remember seeing this many people in her shop in the past 2 years. It was great seeing all these people out and buying books. This is my favorite book store in the city! (As if you didn’t know!)

    We shot the breeze for a bit and browsed for awhile and then continued on, allowing other customers access to Arlan. We all left with books under our arms. The day was definitely off to a good start.

    Next on our itinerary was a quick stop at White Whale Books and Coffee in Bloomfield. After leaving, we went across the street to Paddy Cake Bakery for some Chocolate Chip Cookies to fuel us on as we headed into Oakland.

    People in the college section of town were happy to be outside, window shopping and eating at tables on the sidewalk. Students were laughing and talking with each other, families strolled hand in hand enjoying the warm temperatures and the fresh smelling air. These things all added to the beauty of the day. In the middle of the block we saw shelves of books sitting outside our next stop, the Caliban Book Shop.

    One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about this shop is the tight aisles. Books are stacked on the floor in places and the shelves are set in odd angles. Though I never have, I always have a sense of possibly getting lost in this store, and where would a better place to be lost than a book shop?

    I gravitated towards the Books on Books shelves. Squeezing past a couple patrons to get there, I scanned the racks looking for “that” book, the one that needed to come home with me. 

    There is a certain joy to wandering through a bookstore. There are always books I haven’t seen before and I’m always on the look-out for that “special” book, the one just sitting on its shelf, waiting for me to walk past. Sometimes it sits there for years until I happen to stroll by and it can grab my eye. Jumping out at me, it lets me know it needs to come home with me. I know this makes books sound alive…but you have to remember, they are! They have taken me along on adventures, taught me things which helped me through life, they have made me laugh, cry and love. I admit that I have a passion for new books, never certain as to where they will lead me. I am constantly looking for my next affair with these multi-paged lovers!

    We all made some purchases and then returned to the car. Frank and Kelle headed home and Ann Marie and I settled in and started leafing through our new books, happy and content.

    *Remember; always support your local bookstores. These stores are very important city resources. The people who run them will help you find the books that you didn’t realize that you needed!

 Be sure to thank them when you leave! 

Behind the Fence

 As with any good trip, Frank and I left early, before the sun rose. There is always that hope that we would be blessed with a nice sunrise. That didn’t happen on this trip.

    We were driving to Cresson, not very far from the Horseshoe Curve in Altoona. Frank and I had been out there in February and did a cache near a historical marker. High on the mountains above Altoona was a sanitarium, the high altitude and cool air believed to be beneficial to those suffering tuberculosis.

    Opened in 1913 it was one of the first of many sanitariums built to attempt to stop the curse of TB. It operated until 1964 when the last patient left the facility. After a few re-brandings, the facility has been abandoned since 2013. This would be our destination.

    We arrived a little before 9 in the morning. Barbed wire surrounded the buildings, giving us a rather ominous feeling as we slipped inside. Hopefully we will be coming back outside later…

    We started our exploration with what looked like the oldest and the largest building. Inside we found basketball courts, offices, classrooms, a hair salon along with numerous other rooms and in the basement, the boiler room. 

    Everywhere we went, paint was peeling off the walls. While we were looking through the basement, we noticed a cool breeze (?) drifting past us. Following it, we passed a batch of rooms, their purposes unknown. The light got dimmer as we moved away from the windows. Our flashlights showed us a pair of doors leading into a dark tunnel!

    Only about 7-foot square, there were pipes hanging alongside the walls and from the ceiling, the paint was pealing, and water was dripping. And of course, we went in!

    Jacks held the ceiling up in a couple spots.  We passed an intersection that led to another building but since it was blocked off, we continued on after shining our lights into it. The tunnel continued on a slight upward angle curving towards the right as it went. Walking for what seemed like a hundred yards or more, we came to another set of doors leading into another basement. Going upstairs, we discovered that we were inside a building with bars on the windows and locks on the doors. Thankfully, the doors were open.

    We roamed around in this building for a while, exploring the different floors and rooms and then moved onto other buildings.

    Eventually we discovered some examination rooms along with an old x-ray machine. Going to another building we discovered cells. The doors had locks on them and bars were on the windows.

    The hospital was in operation until 1964 when the final TB patient left. The facility was then repurposed to be a hospital for patients with severe mental disorders. It continued on until the 80’s when it changed hands and became a medium security prison. The prison closed in 2013.

    It was sad looking at the places people had been sentenced to live in. Some of the cells were solitary, having only a concrete bed, with loops on it for securing the patients or prisoners. A thin canvas mattress lay on one of them. The furniture in it was made out of concrete! We saw cell doors with plastic covering the bars with trays for sliding food inside. (Similar to those scenes in Silence of the Lambs!) There were exercise areas that were only 10’ by 30’. I found these things very depressing!

    We visited a couple of the newer buildings, built to house prisoners. Guard stations still had the controls for the doors and switches to turn the lights on and off in each of the cells. A few of the cells held as many as 6 men. (This was an all-male prison) Others were only big enough to hold one.

    We stopped at the chapel before we left and sat for a couple minutes, perhaps resting, maybe saying a prayer that we’d be able to get back out!

    In all, we spent close to 3 hours in the facility. We probably only visited half of the buildings there. A few of the newer buildings looked  pre-fabricated and were falling apart from the weather. The property has more buildings on it outside the fence but they are being used, we stayed away from them.

    There are a lot of interesting things to see in here. It is surprising how little graffiti and damage there is. We saw lots of broken windows but most of the damage came from the ravages of time.

    We took tons of pictures, many of which were deleted due to poor lighting. Neither of us got hurt though both of us complained about our knees. It was worth the pain and I’d do it again in a heartbeat! 

    There was just one hitch, if you happen to go there, tell Frank I’m working on getting his bail money!

The Deafening Silence

 It’s another rainy day at the library. Sunny one day and the next; it’s too wet to venture outdoors. It is a perfect day to get lost in the written word.

    The only noises heard are faint. No crashing blasts of sound that might startle me, only bits of noise that need concentration to hear or to figure out what they are.

    There are some voices, far enough away to be undecipherable, the knowledge that they come from children is all that comes through. The only other sounds filtering into the space I’m in are a few pages being shuffled at a near-by desk and the gentle tapping from a computer keyboard.

    The windows in front of me reveal what is outside and why I am on the inside. It looks cold, a wet cold April morning. I put a marker between the pages of my book and look out the window, my mind drifting. The sky was clear yesterday, unlike the grey clouds of today which seemed to have settled in. I daze a bit and think back…

    Last night I watched as the just past full moon rose over the horizon. A bit past nine in the evening, houses on the hillside had their outdoor lights on. Some houses were dark and in others, lights illuminated the windows, the owners still awake, perhaps with televisions on or cuddled up together. No cars moved in the neighborhood and if anyone was outside, they were too far away to see.

    Behind their houses the moon was rising. It started with just a faint lightning on the brush stroked clouds. Gradually they brightened and turned orange as the moon came closer to the edge of the world. Soon, a thin sliver of the moon appeared. Slowly it enlarged as it rose, getting bigger and bigger.

    The houses visible in the camera lens seemed small compared to the huge ball of light behind them. The moon appeared even brighter against the darkness of the distant hillside. Inside the houses, the occupants had no idea what was happening behind them. They had no idea the part that they were playing in my evening!

    My camera caught the lights of their houses along with the reflected light of the sun bouncing off the disc of the moon. It was the artwork of our world, the beauty which occurs daily, if we are lucky enough to see it!

    It was only me and the moon. Even without the camera, the moon looked huge against the distant hillside, and in turn, made me feel small standing there all alone.

    The world was nice and quiet as the beauty of the cosmos screamed out in front of me. Sometimes the loudest noises are nearly silent!

    Returning to the present and the silence of the library, I opened my book and returned to my reading.

A Couple Furnaces, a Few Geocaches and Some History

 The day was looking good, clear skies above and the temperature was warm enough to need only a sweatshirt. No rain, no sleet, no graupel. (A word I’ve only recently come across, a type of snow)

    Ann Marie and I were going “on the road” for awhile. We started our tour by heading north on Route 8, towards Butler. We had a list with us with a couple different sites we were going to attempt to find.

    These sites came from a book I was paging through called A Guide To Historic Western Pennsylvania, by Smith & Swetnam. (1991 edition) The book is formatted by counties. We were searching for sites in Butler County for the main part.

    One of the problems with using a book this old, 31 years, is that the information in it may no longer be accurate. The sprawl of mankind often destroys places of historic significance. Our thoughts deal more with the present and future rather than the past. We often forget that it is important to remember the past, our roots as a society!

(1958 Butler map)

    Dropping back in time about 100 years, our first quest was south of Butler. The North Star Inn was a brick tavern used as a stage coach stop. It was located .2 of a mile north of Airport Road, alongside Rt8. This would put it right about where the Dollar General is located. Without going down any driveways or going onto anyone’s property, we didn’t see it. It might still be there, perhaps we will find it some other day, or maybe it’s under the Dollar store.

    In downtown Butler we stopped and walked over to the Little Brick School House. Built in 1838, it was the first public school house built in Butler. Over time it has been used as a meeting house, an office, a center for the Red Cross during WWII and a public library! (Love those libraries!) Now it is a museum.

    There are a couple nice wall paintings in Butler, this one is just a block away from the schoolhouse. There is a nice 3 dimensional look to the one on the left, the shadows painted on the wall matched the shadows on the streets.

    Going further north on Rt8, we turned towards the east on Rt58 in Harrisville. This would take us over to our next item on our list, the Marion Iron Furnace.

    While we traveled we did a few geocaches. The first two were guardrail hides, quick and easy, but still fun to search for! During the day, we found all four of the hides we looked for.

    A little over a ¼ mile away from one of the caches, we got out and tromped through the woods for awhile, looking for the ruins of the iron furnace. We met Todd and his boys, Dylan and Carson fishing in the near-by stream. Explaining to them what we were looking for, they helped us locate the ruins.

    The ruins of the Marion Furnace is a rather large pile of rocks, covered with moss and leaves. Built in 1848, it was used for about 12 years. It produced about 18 tons of iron a week! One of the openings of the furnace is still visible, the stones in it are still sharp and in line after all these years, unlike the rest of the furnace. Not far upstream are the remains of a dam and the planes of several roads can be seen in the woods around the furnace. Rocks  on top of the pile show the curvature of the stack.

    We spent a short time talking with the guys before headed on our way. It is always fun meeting new friends and sharing our similar interests. 

    We stopped in Mercer at the Public Library to search for another cache. While we were there, we met the owner of the cache who works at the library. Mathew came out and watched us as we searched. I have to say it was well hidden, it was right in front of me and I didn’t see it!

    We did another cache near Slippery Rock Creek and while we were there, we visited the Wilroy Iron Furnace.  This was built in1854 and lasted 23 years before being shut down. It is one of the better preserved furnaces in Western PA. 

    In the community of Harmony, we visited Rapp’s Seat. Father George Rapp was the head of the Harmony Society, founded in the early 1800’s. He would sit in a chair carved into a rock formation high above the town to meditate and also to keep an eye on his flock.

    There is a trail going to the chair, a mere137 steps up a steep hillside. The chair is underneath a cliff overlooking the Connoquenesssing Creek and Rt79 in the distance.

    There are a lot of names carved into the rock, some with dates from the early 1900’s. Sadly some newer names and comments have been added with spray paint. After seeing other places during the day unadulterated, it was sad to see this abuse of a historical site.

    Our final stop was at Minetta Spring. This was built by Harry Etheridge in honor of his mother-in-law, Minetta in 1931.

     The spring is located on busy Rt68 between Harmony and Evans City. We were hoping to find an arch near-by which is a remnant of a grist mill built by the Harmonists. Chances are the mill was built near the stream below the roadway. We couldn’t see anything from the road and eventually decided to head for home. I’ll have to do some more research, if it’s there, I’d like to see it!

    From there we returned to Glenshaw, completing our 130+ mile loop. Like all our trips, it was a good one. We met some nice people, made some good memories, visited some great spots and enjoyed a drive with the windows down. What more could we ask for?