Pittsburgh

It is funny to me that James was initially against this whole blogging thing and now I can't tear him away from the computer. He is witty and charming so I don't object to him being our primary spokesman. Unless he calls me a geek, which just for the record he asked me to rewind a part of the Goonies he missed due to a phone call, so he couldn't have hated it too much. Also to defend myself over the Amish bakery incident...... we knew the exact location of such a place but James thought it would be more fun to explore and come across one spontaneously. While usually I am all up for adventure, when sweets are involved I say go for the sure thing. After 2 hours of unsuccessful 'exploring' I got a little cranky.

Well we finally got a taste of some of the weather that everyone in Arkansas has been experiencing. We went for about 3 days without seeing the sun and realized that perhaps we would have had a harder time staying happily married this year if we hadn't had so many sunny days. I knew things were getting bad when I found myself trying to coerce James into kayaking the river even though it was above flood stage. Thankfully he didn't listen to me and the sense of stir craziness passed.

Yesterday we went into Pittsburgh. We had to wear our fleece jackets, even though it is the middle of May. The theme for the day was food. James was very focused on having a sandwich from Primanti Brothers restaurant, a place he saw on the Discovery channel. It was some sort of cheese steak thing with coleslaw and french fries on the sandwich, yuck. He seemed to enjoy it and the fries were good (I had mine on the side, not touching the sandwich of course). We then stumbled across a neat downtown market that had all kinds of fresh meat. Just our luck they were having a special on fillet Mignon so of course we had to stock up for the RV. We also checked out the Heinz history museum and took the incline up to Mt. Washington to take in a view of the city. I have to say Pittsburgh was a nicer city than James and I thought it would be. It sits at the confluence of 2 big rivers and has lots of hills and trees. It does sort-of seem like a struggling city, due to the collapse of the steel industry. We had a drink at Mel's bar at the top of the Duquesne incline and heard him lament about the decline of his city and how the 26 year old mayor was running it into the ground. 26 year old mayor? I was just mastering balancing my checkbook at age 26, let alone the budget for a big city.

Today we enjoyed the sunshine and James did some fishing from our campsite at Keystone State Park. Tomorrow we are heading north towards Niagara Falls, shooting for being there before the weekend rush. I am very excited! It is supposed to rain again, but we will already be wet from the waterfall so who cares.

I got a phone call yesterday from one of my former vice principals and it seems as if I might be gainfully employed again next year. I tried to use this information of course to encourage James to stay on the road for a few more weeks, but no dice. It is a huge answer to prayer to have security for next year. I may have to find a safe bike route to get me up to Bentonville as gas prices sky rocket, but it will be worth it because it is a great place to work.

I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow! We will be home soon!

Love, Kim