Well, I made it to the Emerald City! It was a long drive, over 8 1/2 hours. I had a relaxing break when I stopped at Lookout Point atop of Mt. Ararat in the Allegheny Mountains. This as the spot where the Grand View Hotel once stood. At an elevation of 2464 ft., the view was quite spectacular! There are just vague “relics” remaining of the hotel. The walls have crumbled but the foundation piers still provide a rough idea of where the building jutted out from the mountainside. Just west of where I stopped, I was mesmerized by the sight of a “wind farm” that had sprung up on both sides of Rt. 30. Although one might be immediately upset about the intrusion of technology to the pristine mountaintops, those thoughts were quickly dispelled. What an ideal place to help to save the planet. The actual structures were beautiful. The blades weren’t frantically whirling at top speed, but rather very slowly turning as they captured the wind and converted it into needed energy.
I am posting a few shots that I took from Grand View as well as one of the wind farm. I am off to meet with Jim Hartman from the Mifflin Historical Society. I hope to find some treasured photos from Duquesne that I’ll share with you in future posts. I can’t wait to see what I can dig up. By the way, I awoke this morning to KDKA news reporting that there had been another murder in Duquesne last night. This time at the “Sportsman Bar” on Crawford Ave. God help me. Wish me luck!
The Duquesne Hunky 
Too bad you couldn’t have come to the Emerald City next week or the week after. Things are just starting to look a little green and the forsythia are just starting to blossom. The weather hasn’t been that great either – mostly cloudy and gray (but we did have a couple of nice days a week or two ago).
Hope your visit is everything you want it to be. Just don’t stray too far from homebase at night and you will be fine. You’ll notice a lot of empty lots now where older homes (and some not so old) have been demolished. Some new homes have been built, but I don’t think they have all been occupied yet and City Hall actually wants to build more new houses – but how do you convinve people to move to Duquesne with the school district almost at the bottom of the rating list for the entire state (Thank God for a couple of schools worse off in the Philly area – see I knew Philly was good for something! LOL.) and news like you just heard of another shooting (or stabbing) in the City??? Duquesne was an excellent place to grow up – we knew all the neighbors on our own block and most of the neighbors on the surrounding blocks plus a lot of our friends’ neighbor too. All the Moms and Bubbas looked out for all the kids just because that was the right thing to do. Illnesses or deaths in the neighborhood brought everyone together to help out however we could. We had good teachers and most of us “kids” wanted to learn. (That could be a subject for a future blog – your favorite teachers in High School, I won’t mention mine so I don’t influence you.) That was just the way it used to be (sounds like an Opie and Andy episode but its still true) and when we were little I don’t think any of us thought it would ever change – especially as radically as it has (much to the dismay of all of us who grew up in what we thought was the greatest place to live).
I’m afraid that all the wonderful memories are just that…hope your bubble doesn’t burst. If you want to save the planet, Duquesne is a good place to start. Lots of luck!