December 27, 2010

Christmas

Merry Christmas!! I’ll be taking off for another road trip over New Year’s but so many funny things happened over the Christmas week that I had to share some of them.

The Christmas week began with Amber inviting me to a get together with some of her friends. When we got there the first order of business was opening a large bottle of wine. The plastic wine opener we had wasn’t very sturdy and it took us a while to even get the corkscrew into the cork. Once we finally did, Amber’s friend then tried to remove the cork but ended up breaking off the corkscrew from the plastic instead so now there was a broken off piece of metal in the cork. Her friends went out to buy another opener and I thought perhaps I could grab onto the metal with pliers or a wrench to work it out but no such luck. I then tried my old college method of hitting the bottom of the bottle with a boot. No one believes me that this works but I used to do it all the time on wine tours because for some reason we could never remember to bring one and we were too cheap to buy a new one. However, proper bootage is necessary and we did not have an appropriate boot. (below is just an example picture) Her friends soon returned with a solid metal opener and nominated me to open the bottle. Since there was already a corkscrew stuck in the cork, I had to put the other one down all cattywampus. Because it was off center, I couldn’t get the hook on the opener to latch on to the lid to provide proper leverage so I proceeded to just reef on it. All of a sudden I heard a crack and I looked down to find I had snapped off the neck of the wine bottle!!! The opener was still in the cork and the cork was still in the neck and I had snapped off a good 2 inches of glass. I was afraid to look down because I was convinced that my hand was sliced off but amazingly, I wasn’t hurt. Everyone was staring at me in shock like I had turned into the Hulk or something. I have absolutely no clue how I snapped glass and frankly I’m scared of my own strength. Somehow after that I managed to decorate a wine glass and a martini glass in delicate snowflakes and peaceful mountains without them shattering apart in my robo-hands. I surprised myself at how good they looked since I’ve never been much for free handed craftiness.

For Christmas Eve, a friend of the family’s came by and we went hiking at one of the local parks. Dad was telling us about the gypsum mining history in the park and I plan to go searching out said mines come the spring. I had no idea the park had that much history.

The fun continued after Christmas Eve dinner when Amber and I had a dance battle. Mom had rented “Just Dance” for the Wii and it was so much fun. Amber won most of the battles because she actually followed the directions while I got caught up in the music and free styled most of it.

Christmas Eve Mass was fun because they had all sorts of crazy music going on. At one point a guy blew a horn (like an actual animal horn) and startled the tinsel out of everyone. I feared one man would have a heart attack. Then they inexplicably played the bongo drums. When it was time for communion my Aunt leaned over and said “you think they’ll fire up the drums and we can have a conga line up to communion?”

Christmas was very nice and peaceful until Don opened his gift from Kyle and Devin. They got him a remote controlled helicopter and he barely set the thing down all day. The thing only costs $14 and it’s durable as hell because Don crashed it all over the place. Kyle brought his Chinook over so there were 2 helicopters buzzing around. Here’s a picture of Don crashing right into my camera.

My favorite part of Christmas Day was when we were at my Grandparents house. There were plates of food all over the counter and Dad was grazing on the snacks when all of a sudden I heard a really loud crunching noise. Dad gets this weird look on his face and says “what the hell kind of nuts are these?” I looked past him and saw he had dipped his hand into the cat food bowl that was also on the counter! He spits it out and says “did I just eat damned cat food!?” Mom and I laughed so hard we were crying.

However my favorite part of the holiday week was on Sunday when Kyle, Don and I got into mischief. A few times a year, the three of us end up with some time on our hands and disaster typically ensues. With the recent discovery of old film reels of my father and his siblings, I find this to be an inherited trait. On those films my family was driving an old snowmobile and pulling the kids along behind it, usually at high rates of speed to try to dump them off. So when I saw Kyle and Don out riding their 4 wheelers I thought it would be a great time to carry on a family tradition. We grabbed my old pink saucer and a tow strap and (since it was my idea) I got the first ride. Don whipped me around the driveway and somehow (either by design or sheer luck) I whizzed by the trees and cars without hitting anything until the end when I had to let go to sail past the cherry tree. After we had all mastered the pink saucer (and Max ran off with it convinced it was a giant Frisbee) we decided to try my old purple sled. This didn’t work quite as well so I ran into the hanger and grabbed our old inner tube that we used to tow behind the boat.

Back when we were younger, when we were towed behind the boat, Kyle and Don usually fell off within a few seconds and I was the one who rarely did. One time the tube flipped over and I still hung on despite being dragged upside down until my Mom made my Dad stop the boat. This tenacity carried on into my cowgirl days when I was the only wrangler at the ranch to never fall off a horse despite the many, many, times when I rightfully should have. So I carried my sheer stubborn will and tenacity into this activity as well.

I had to bail at one point when Don whipped me into the pricker bushes at the end of the runway and then when I sailed into the field because I didn’t want to pop the tube. Don did his damndest to get me off though. After we all mastered the tube, I decided to up the stakes and put two people on the tube. This actually worked really well because of the extra weight. At one point I wasn’t even hanging on. I yelled I was falling off so Kyle grabbed my glove but my hand had slipped from inside the glove. Then Don and I were on the tube and I ended up taking over most of the tube and he was being dragged alongside. He yelled “if I fall you’re coming with me” and I yelled back “every man for himself!” During this whole time, Dad kept walking back and forth between the garage and Grandpa’s house and muttering “someone’s going to break their neck”

Kyle then took Don and I up behind the shop and whipped us up the hill and as we came back down we sailed into the cornfield and heard a “pop!” and immediately sank down to the ground. Because the field hadn’t been plowed under, a corn stalk had pierced the tube. Don wasn’t letting that deter him and decided to ride on the deflated tube. At this point he was just being dragged. We decided to quit while we were ahead and have many plans cooked up for some future fun.

December 23, 2010

Last of Thanksgiving

After my tour of Friendship Hill, I headed back to my car, scarfed down an old Thanksgiving roll and drove to a trailhead on the property. The snow had stopped so I decided to do some hiking. I went on a lovely stroll through the woods and came across an old graveyard. On the way back I saw a pastoral scene of deer grazing in the snow covered woods. Then I came across this

WHAT!!!?? I hiked the same trail out and back and did not see this on the way out. At first I thought it was trash caught in the tree so I walked over and freaked out when I saw this bird (obviously not too freaked out because I stopped to take pictures) but then I heard gunshots and realized I was wearing a white scarf (not good for deer season) so I hightailed it out of there. Seriously, that had to be done by a human. There’s no way a bird could just naturally die like that.

It was starting to get dark so once again I started calling around to hotels using the numbers Jack gave me. I dialed this one number and instead of getting a switchboard or a person using a standard hotel getting this guy says hello. I paused for a second and then said “is this the Interstate Motel?” Without missing a beat he says “No, but it can be”. I hung up on him but I was laughing pretty hard. He’s a quippy one.

I passed a lovely night at the hotel and was glad to see the sunshine Sunday morning. I drove back through Jamestown, NY because I wanted to stop and see the Ribaudo’s (friends from Keuka). It was so nice to see them doing well and their dog is the cutest thing. After that it all went downhill because it took me 4 hours to get home. The traffic was terrible! I was listening to the Bills game on the radio so I knew it wasn’t because of Bills traffic. It wasn’t snowing so it couldn't be the weather. I guess it was just volume from the holiday weekend. I was in stop and go traffic from Buffalo and the worst part was, there wasn’t even an accident on my side! The accident was on the west bound side. Finally around Leroy the traffic cleared up and I made it home. I guess I can’t complain too much because 2 days later Buffalo was slammed by snow and people were struck in drifts of snow on the Thruway for 24 hours. Happy Thanksgiving!

December 16, 2010

The National Road and Friendship Hill

As you’ll recall from my Fort Necessity post, Washington had originally set out to build a road (not start a war). The other half of the exhibits at Fort Necessity covers the history of what would eventually become the first National Road.

The National Road, today called U.S. Route 40, was the first highway built entirely with federal funds. The road was authorized by Congress in 1806 during the Jefferson Administration. Construction began in Cumberland, Maryland in 1811. The route closely paralleled the military road opened by George Washington and General Braddock in 1754-55. Eventually the road was pushed through central Ohio and Indiana reaching Vandalia, Illinois in the 1830's where construction ceased due to a lack of funds. The National Road opened the Ohio River Valley and the Midwest for settlement and commerce.

I traveled down U.S. 40 for a few miles to find Braddock’s grave. After George Washington's defeat at Fort Necessity the British decided to take matters more seriously and simultaneously attack many French forts in North America. So a year after the Fort Necessity battle Washington came back through the area with Braddock to attack Fort Duquesne. Braddock decided to follow the road Washington had blazed over the mountains on his way to Fort Necessity. Along the way the regiment encountered Indians and Braddock was mortally wounded and died a few days later. Washington feared that if his body was found the Indians would desecrate it so it was buried in the middle of the National Road and wagons were rolled over top of the grave site to prevent his body from being discovered and desecrated.

It was still pretty early in the day and I was sick of driving in the snow so I decided to head south to West Virginia. Sure enough, by the time I hit the state line there was no snow to be seen and the sun was out. I took the back roads into Morgantown, WV and ended up at an Ace Hardware using my 50% off coupon for Christmas presents. There wasn’t much else to do in West Virginia so I drove back up into PA and went to Friendship Hill. Here is another place that I had never heard of but was amazed at what I learned there.

Friendship Hill is the home of Albert Gallatin so here’s the Wikipedia version of who he was:

Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin (January 29, 1761 – August 12, 1849) was a Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, politician, diplomat, congressman, and the longest-serving United States Secretary of the Treasury. Born in Switzerland, Gallatin immigrated to America in the 1780s, ultimately settling in Pennsylvania. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1793, but was removed from office by a 14–12 party-line vote after a protest raised by his opponents suggested he had fewer than the required nine years of citizenship. In 1795 he was elected to the House of Representatives and served in the fourth through sixth Congresses, becoming House Majority Leader.

He also helped found the House Committee on Finance (later the Ways and Means Committee). In 1831, he founded the University of the City of New York. In 1896, this university was renamed New York University and is now the largest private university in the United States. His biggest accomplishment (in my mind) was that he managed to reduce the national debt by half during his tenure (while still managing to buy the Louisiana Purchase!) and thanks to his policies his successors were able to reduce the national debt to $0-the only time that's been done in history!!

Friendship Hill National Historic Site was the home of Albert Gallatin and it overlooks the Monongahela River. Once again, I was the only person on the grounds. I followed the sidewalk up to the home and was greeted inside by a lovely, informative lady who gave me a 10 minute talk on the history of the place. I was then shown a DVD that was basically a hologram of old Albert talking about his home. Then the ranger took me through the house and showed me how to get around (it had been added onto many times and was quite confusing). She then left me to explore on my own. I was enraptured with all the history when Jess called me. Because it was a massive old home and I was the only visitor I spoke to her in hushed tones, trying to appear reverent of history. Jess was having none of it and accused me of being a miserable bore and hung up on me. Typical.

The exhibits were great and very informative although my only quibble was with the time lines. The wall was covered with interesting anecdotes (see above) but there was no discernible rhyme or reason so one minute I was reading about his second marriage, then his immigration, then his death, then his first marriage. I managed to get the gist of it though. I couldn’t believe Gallatin was a massively influential person who did all these amazing things and yet I had never even heard of him. Actually, I had but I never knew it. When I was In Wyoming, outside of Yellowstone, I saw the Gallatin mountain range and the Gallatin River. Now I know the man behind the name!

After finishing my tour I went outside to the gazebo that overlooked the Monongahela River and then continued on a trail to see the grave of Gallatin’s first wife. Here’s a tragic story for you: Gallatin was married to Sophia for less than a year when she fell ill and died. She specifically requested that he tell no one where he buried her. He said "There lies one of the best and purest women God ever made. I would have erected a monument to her memory only she requested me not to do so, preferring that her grave should not be marked. She said that I would know where she was laid, and to the rest of the world was of little importance". Awww

December 13, 2010

Fort Necessity

After that emotional day at Johnstown and Flight 93 I was exhausted so I headed south in search of a hotel room. Calling around, I found one for $29. Sweet, I thought. After arriving at the place I began to realize exactly what that rate meant but hey it’s cheap so whatever. The “lobby” was the size of a closet and after ringing the bell a few times I went to leave but when I did a man came out of the building across the way and said “I have room!” I checked in and he says “that will be $43”. I said “excuse me!? It was $29 on the phone a few minutes ago”. He quickly backtracked and gave me the $29 rate. My room was small, which I didn’t mind but the heater was next to the bed so the bathroom got no heat at all. Plus the heater was so ancient it had a clearly visible flame through the vents and had a sound like there was a tiny man playing soccer in there. Suffice to say, I didn’t get much sleep.

I woke up ready to hit the road and when I opened my door what to my wondering eyes did appear but 2 inches of snow covering my car and a blizzard currently in progress! I was not expecting that. Ever since my barb wire and ice incident almost three years ago exactly I am terrified to drive in the snow so I hit the roads at a crawl. Luckily it was a dry snow so the roads weren’t too terrible. On the way to my first site I came across one of those old barns with tobacco advertising on the side that I thought was cute. Further down the road, I saw a sign for a covered bridge so I turned and came across this gem.

I love this new setting on my camera which allows you to isolate a color and turn everything else to black and white. It made the Flight 93 pictures from yesterday quite poignant I thought.

Since I was in the mountains of Southwestern PA the roads were quite upsy downsy. That wasn’t a problem as I was the only car out but I soon came upon a truck that was chugging along in first gear up a steep hill (and I am leery of steep snowy hills since I have a standard). I waited at the bottom for a few minutes and when he had made it up I took off and blazed up in second gear. I finally arrived, white-knuckled at Fort Necessity.
Because it was cold and windy I was the only one there for my entire visit. I had no idea how much history happened here! It was amazing to hear and see a battle that I had never before heard of but was integral to the history of America.

The action at Fort Necessity was the first major event in the military career of George Washington, and it marked the only time he ever surrendered to an enemy. Here’s the story:

Rival claims between the French and the English to the vast territory along the Ohio River between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi were what led to the battle. In 1753, the Governor of Virginia learned the French had built a fort in that part of the Ohio country claimed by Virginia. So he sent an eight-man expedition under George Washington to warn the French to withdraw. Washington, then only 21 years old, made the journey in midwinter of 1753-54. The French refusal to withdraw set the stage for the events that took place at Fort Necessity.

In early April, George Washington, newly commissioned lieutenant colonel, started westward from Alexandria with part of a regiment of Virginia frontiersmen to build a road to Redstone Creek on the Monongahela. He was then to help defend the English fort on the Ohio. When told the fort was in French hands, he resolved to push on to Redstone Creek and await further instructions.

Washington arrived at the Great Meadows, as the Fort Necessity area was then called, on May 24. Although the meadow was nearly all marsh, he believed it "a charming field for an encounter" and ordered his men to set up an encampment. Three days later, after hearing that a group of French soldiers had been spotted about seven miles away on Chestnut Ridge, Washington and 40 men set out to find them. At dawn on May 28, the Virginians reached the camp of Tanacharison, a friendly Seneca chief known as the Half King. His scouts then led them to the ravine about two miles to the north where the French were encamped.

The French, commanded by Jumonville, were taken by surprise. Ten were killed, including Jumonville (by Half King). Fearing "we might be attacked by considerable forces," Washington undertook to fortify his position at the Great Meadows. During the last two days of May and the first three days of June, he built a circular palisaded fort, which he called Fort Necessity.

The rest of the Virginia regiment arrived at the Great Meadows on June 9, along with supplies and nine swivel guns. Washington's command now totaled 293 officers and men. He was reinforced several days later by about 100 men. Washington's attempts to retain his Indian allies were not successful.

On the morning of July 3, a force of about 600 French and 100 Indians approached the fort. After the French took up positions in the woods, Washington withdrew his men to the entrenchments. Rain fell throughout the day, flooding the marshy ground. Both sides suffered casualties, but the British losses were greater than French and Indian losses.

The fighting continued sporadically until about 8 p.m. Then Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers, commander of the French force and brother of Jumonville, requested a truce to discuss the surrender of Washington's command. Near midnight, after several hours of negotiation, the terms were reduced to writing and signed by Washington and Mackay. Because the paper was brought to Washington in the rain it was soggy and smudged and the courier had very little knowledge of French so Washington did not interpret a key phrase correctly and ultimately admitted to the assassination of Jumonville (he did not discover this fact until years later).

This battle helped to set the stage for the French and Indian war and ultimately the American Revolution.

December 9, 2010

Flight 93

I had originally planned to stay around Johnstown but it was only 3pm (and frankly I was too traumatized from the horror film to hang around). I decided to drive over to the Flight 93 Memorial. As you all probably remember, the Flight 93 National Memorial protects the site of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked in the September 11 attacks. The plane was intended to target the White House but because of the brave people onboard, it miraculously crashed in the middle of a cornfield only 20 minutes flying time from D.C. The site now is basically a construction zone because the first phase of a permanent memorial is currently being constructed. The hole where the plane gouged into the earth has since been filled in and really it’s just an empty field again but it still moved me to tears. People still leave flags and memorials stuck in the fence, reminders that, almost 10 years later, these people are still loved and remembered.

There’s a little construction shanty the size of a storage shed that has a small exhibit that goes over the timeline of that day. I learned a lot that I had never heard before. What really got me though were the binders containing the biographies of those people killed and the phone transcripts of the passengers who called their loved ones when they realized they had been hijacked. One lady left a message for her friend with the combination to her safe. There was also a little exhibit with various memorials left like flags, badges, figurines, etc. and a wall where visitors could leave a note. Also displayed was a rendering of what the memorial will look like when it’s completed and I would love to come back and see it because the concept looks beautiful. All in all, a very emotional day filled with historic tragedies.

December 5, 2010

The Johnstown Flood

My next stop was the Johnstown Flood Memorial and it is the site of one of the worst “natural” disasters in U.S. history. I feel compelled to relate the entire story here as it is riveting and I highly encourage you to visit if you are ever in the area.

Back story: 50 years prior to the flood an earthen dam had been built 450 feet above the valley to hold a reservoir of water for a canal. The dam fell into disrepair when canals were abandoned in favor of steam engines (as I had just learned at the Portage railroad). After falling into disrepair, the dam was purchased by a bunch of rich Pittsburgh industrialists (Carnegie and Mellon included) who wanted a place to summer. They bought the property and called themselves the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club. They filled the lake up to its maximum depth, lowered the top of the dam to build a road across and stocked the lake with exotic fish. They soon found that the fish had been escaping the lake through the spill way of the dam, and fishermen down river had been catching them. Offended that common men were catching their expensive, exotic fish they came up with a simple way to prevent this; they placed a screen across the spillway to prevent fish from escaping. However during storms that spillway acted as overflow preventing the dam waters from over topping the earthen dam.

The Flood: Johnstown is located in a deep valley and its residents were quite used to spring flooding. There was even a standing joke in town that someday the dam would give way.On May 31, 1889 during a torrential rainstorm (6-10 inches of rain fell in 24 hours) the spillway became clogged with detritus and the water soon rose to the top of the dam, and over topped it. Throughout this, men were working frantically trying to divert the water. When they realized it was only getting worse they sent a telegraph down to Johnstown warning of impending doom but since the residents were used to floods, no one believed it. It finally burst and the entire dam collapsed at once.
One witness said "it simply moved away". Within 45 minutes the entire lake (20 million tons of water) had drained. The water rushed downhill at 40 mph and if it wasn’t for all the debris in the water the speeds could have been up to 90 mph. A wire works plant was in the path of the flood and barb wire was swept away by the water so many people got entangled in barb wire. One town along the way was reduced to bedrock because of the force of the water. Can you even imagine!? Not just the house or grass is gone; the entire town was stripped to bedrock. Because Johnstown sat in a deep valley, many escaped by heading for high ground and could no nothing but helplessly watch the destruction.

The flood temporarily stopped when it came up against a viaduct and debris jammed against it but within a few minutes the viaduct busted and swept all the water and debris into Johnstown. Witnesses say all they could see was a mist and then a roar of thunder and then a wall of water 50 foot high came pushing through town. In 10 minutes four square miles of the town was completely destroyed.

The Aftermath: Thousands of people who had survived the initial flood wave were swept downstream and were stopped by an immense stone bridge at the far end of town. Here, accumulating debris piled up against the arches, forming an almost watertight dam of broken houses, trees, train cars, and bodies. It acted like another dam, causing the water to back up over the city. Then the entire mass of wires, wood, rail cars and bodies caught fire. When it was over 99 entire families died, including 396 children. 124 women and 198 men were left without their spouses, 98 children lost both parents. 777 victims (1 of every 3 bodies found) were never identified. Some bodies were found as far away as Cincinnati and some were never found at all. Dynamite had to be used to clear out some piles of debris because they were so compacted. People didn't even know where to start looking for the remains of their houses or the bodies of their families because everything was gone, leaving them no clue where their house had even stood. Interestingly, this flood was the first major disaster relief effort of the American Red Cross and Clara Barton stayed for 5 months. It was also one of the most photographed disasters of its time. The dam and lake are long gone and Johnstown has since experienced several more major floods but none that equal that of 1889.

So now that you know the story let me tell you about my experience at the site. I entered the visitor center and I was checking out the exhibits when the ranger announced that the orientation movie would be starting. As I was walking into the theatre I noticed a sign on the door that said “some of the film’s images may be unsuitable to children”. That should have been my first clue. I almost left the theatre halfway through as it turned out to be a freakin’ horror movie! The film is all in black and white and sounds like it’s narrated by the grim reaper. The most frightening part was when a little girl was shown playing with her dolls and then all of a sudden you hear what sounds like thunder and the window breaks, water sweeps in and the girl is frantically screaming and grabbing her dolls only to be washed away by the flood. There was a little bit of back story but the majority of the film consisted of utter destruction and people being swept away by rampaging waters to the backdrop of eerie music. The film finally ended and the credits were rolling but the audience was glued to their seats because the narrator was listing those who had died and not been identified by saying things like “female, aged 24, head burned off” “infant, gender unknown” "male shoe, foot attached". Finally the lights came up and we were all just sitting there in shock. It was the most terrifying national park video I have ever seen. This isn't the video I saw but it's the closest I could find on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTM6kEBd9ZE

If you would like to read more about it I highly recommend "History of the Johnstown Flood" which I found for free on Google Books. There are many more stories and it is written much better than my post. http://books.google.com/books?id=np_PeFYb8QEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=johnstown+flood&hl=en&ei=k5j7TP2RBMP38Abx9LmfCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false