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.

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

2nd Annual Thanksgiving Roadtrip

Happy Thanksgiving! Last year Mom and I went on a road trip to see some upstate New York National Park sites over the long weekend so I consider this trip to be the 2^nd Annual Thanksgiving Road trip. I went to 5 more NPS sites in Southwestern PA. For a while now I’d been thinking about doing these parks as a quick weekend trip but other bigger trips took precedence. With only 3 days off for Thanksgiving I figured now was the perfect time to do the trip. It was kind of a last minute jaunt and I didn’t do much planning (which is unheard of for me). I just had the destinations in mind and the rest I would figure out along the way. I went to leave bright and early Friday morning when I realized that I had the non-functioning GPS cord and the one that worked was either in Don or Amber’s car (both of whom were gone working Black Friday). I had a map and figured this kept in the theme of not planning so I left without too much worry.

My first stop was the Allegheny Portage Railroad which was a really cool place. The Allegheny Portage Railroad was the first railroad constructed through the Allegheny Mountains in central PA. It consisted of a series of 10 inclined planes and connecting levels that were used to transport railroad cars and canal boats over the Allegheny Mountains for approximately 36 miles. It only operated for twenty years from 1834 to 1854 until steam trains took over but it was quite the engineering marvel for its day. Basically they took boats out of the canal, put them on a rail car and ran the cars up and over the Allegheny Mountains. There was a really nice exhibit hall and then I headed out into the cold to see the main incline and engine house. At the top of one of the inclines was an engine house that had a display showing how the process worked. It was insane to see how people conceived and executed this idea. They used hemp rope to pull the cars and frequently the rope would break so they soon adopted wire rope (Fun fact: this rope was invented by the same guy who later built the Brooklyn Bridge).

There was also an old boarding house to walk through. I was amazed at the hideous bright yellow paint color on the wall and was wondering why the Park Service would use it (it is called The Lemon House after all). Later, I came across a sign that said the paint color is an accurate reproduction of the color used in that time period and Lemon was the name of the family who operated the establishment.The tavern was for men and filled with alcohol, dead animals and rattlesnake skins while the parlor was for the ladies. There was also a dining room. After leaving the house I decided to walk down the incline to the Skew Arch Bridge. The bridge design was to accommodate a bend in the road, hence the skewed arch. Nowadays it is located in the median of a highway. The trail to it basically dumps you out on the side of a highway with no cross walk so I looked both ways and ran across. I’ve never seen a bridge like this before and I thought it was pretty neat. On the climb back up to the visitor center I really got to appreciate the inclines these rail cars had to get up; I was breathing pretty heavy by the time I got to the top.

The Old Toad

(Note: Please read the following in a Cockney accent)

'eaven and 'ell I ain't posted in a while 'cause I ain't been travelin' but Present and Past night I 'ad a 'eck of an adventure wite 'ere in Rochester that I just 'ad ter share. For those of ya 'oo daan't kna, yesterday was Openin' day for 'untin' season. that's chicken pen the bloody men leather boot and kill deer and Scapa Fla up ter the local Peas in a Pot cross ban Rub-A-Dub ter boast and feast on the innards. Us ocean pearls usually get ter Scapa Fla aahhht ter a restaurant (a rare treat). 'eaven and 'ell normally mom, amber and I consider a trip ter 'Henrietta an exotic dinin' experience but I 'ave been cravin' mexican lately (thanks ter livin' in colorado) and I 'ad 'eard of a 'eaven and 'ell Robin Hood mexican restaurant in the city. So we crossed the Canal and went downtahn ter Salena's. We went in and were told it would be an 'our wait. Forget that!! I walked aahhht yellin' "this is why we leather boot In The Nude in our backyard-na waitin'!". at a loss we 'eaded Hammer and Tack towards Pope in Rome. I remembered passin' by a Drum called the french Farmer's Daughter Colonel (and fondly thought of new orleans food) so we did a Bee Hive by and realized it looked loike someone's dorm va va voom wif Bo-le of Glue tables in it. Forget that!! We came upon Noah's Ark ave (the ritzy part of rochester) and thought we'd cruise daahhhn there lookin' for summit. 'eaven and 'ell we someha got Frank Bough Noah's Ark ave and on ter a gravel alley by the 'ighway. after gettin' Hammer and Tack on the streets we came across a british rub-a-dub called The Old Toad. That sounded quaint and british rub-a-dub In The Nude sounded delicious on a Harry Kewell night. After parkin' in a questionable Randolph Scott we 'eaded in and a lovely jubly Heap Of Coke sat us wite next ter the Dorothy Lamour. The Drum smelled loike pigs ear (hops, barley, etc.) and the Me And You 'ad charmin' british things loike boar banger, bangers and mash, shepards london mince pie and Lilian Gish and jockey's whips. We put in our order and a Ca and Calf 'our went by and the charm of the Old Toad was quickly wearin' Frank Bough (i could only fin' of so many british things ter Pope in Rome on the range consistin' of pip pip, right-o and tallyho. Finally the chap came aahhht and informed us that the kitchen 'ad an equipment malfunction and offered us a Tiddley Win'. I got sum alcoholic Easy Rider that was whistle and pop notch. On The Floor amber soon got 'er broccoil and blue Cheese Loop de Loop that she thought would be akin ter broccili and cheddar but was instead pureed broccoli and blue cheese. Ter whistle and pop it Frank Bough, it was Potatoes in the mould. After an 'our 'ad passed we got the George Best of our In The Nude and scarfed it daahhhn loike feral frogs and logs . I 'ad gotten the shepards london mince pie and it was delicious. At least I fin' it was. I was Pear Halved and Ca and Calf Billy Monk by this point and I kept shoutin' "tallywhacker!" and laughin' at the absurdity of the situation. The jockey's whips were delicious and I 'ad parsnips for the Damien Hirst nickle and dime (interestin' root vegetable that i'm not Bobby I like). After a quick stop at the loo we quickly paid and went ter clock if the Jam Jar 'ad been alf inched or put on blocks but nah it was there. We did clock men exchangin' Bread and Honey outside which i'm pretty Bobby was a drug Ian Beale. aw in aw, an excitin' night in the city and more proof why we should just stick ter the countryside where we belong.

(I couldn't resist translating my post to Cockney. Please see below for the English version)











Well I haven't posted in a while because I haven't been traveling but last night I had a heck of an adventure right here in Rochester that I just had to share. For those of you who don't know, yesterday was Opening Day for hunting season. That's when the men shoot and kill deer and go up to the local gun club to boast and feast on the innards. Us girls usually get to go out to a restaurant (a rare treat). Well normally Mom, Amber and I consider a trip to Henrietta an exotic dining experience but I have been craving Mexican food lately (thanks to living in Colorado) and I had heard of a really good Mexican restaurant in the city. So we crossed the Canal and went downtown to Salena's. We went in and were told it would be an hour wait. Forget that!! I walked out yelling "This is why we shoot food in our backyard-no waiting!". At a loss we headed back towards home. I remembered passing by a place called the French Quarter Cafe (and fondly thought of New Orleans food) so we did a drive by and realized it looked like someone's dorm room with 2 tables in it. Forget that!! We came upon Park Ave (the ritzy part of Rochester) and thought we'd cruise down there looking for something. Well we somehow got off Park Ave and on to a gravel alley by the highway. After getting back on the streets we came across a British Pub called The Old Toad. That sounded quaint and British pub food sounded delicious on a cool night. After parking in a questionable spot we headed in and a lovely bloke sat us right next to the door. The place smelled like beer (hops, barley, etc.) and the menu had charming British things like boar sausage, bangers and mash, shepards pie and fish and chips. We put in our order and a half hour went by and the charm of the Old Toad was quickly wearing off (I could only think of so many British things to yell and they consisted of pip pip, right-o and tallyho. Finally the chap came out and informed us that the kitchen had an equipment malfunction and offered us a drink. I got some alcoholic cider that was top notch. Poor Amber soon got her broccoil and blue cheese soup that she thought would be akin to broccili and cheddar but was instead pureed broccoli and blue cheese. To top it off, it was cold. After an hour had passed we got the rest of our food and scarfed it down like feral dogs. I had gotten the shepards pie and it was delicious. At least I think it was. I was starved and half drunk by this point and I kept shouting "Tallywhacker!" and laughing at the absurdity of the situation. The chips were delicious and I had parsnips for the first time (interesting root vegetable that I'm not sure I like). After a quick stop at the loo we quickly paid and went to see if the car had been stolen or on blocks but no it was there. We did see men exchanging money outside which I'm pretty sure was a drug deal. All in all, an exciting night in the city and more proof why we should just stick to the countryside where we belong.

Last day

Well this is the last day of my week long Fall Foliage 2010 trek across New England so enjoy. This was my first road trip where I spent more time in hotels than camping. I started worrying about paying for hotels but then I realized that, for the first time ever, I have paid vacation time. So basically I’m being paid to stay in a hotel. Oddly enough, I sleep better and feel more comfortable in my tent and would much rather be outdoors (except when a hurricane is dumping massive amounts of rain obviously).

Last night I had crossed the Quechee Gorge on my way into the campground (and driven along it too apparently thanks to Jack’s poor directions to the campground) but because it was dusk I didn’t really see anything. I parked and found a trail running along the gorge to a dam so I meandered on down. On the way back to the bridge I saw a balloon floating through the trees. Ballooning would be an awesome way to see the foliage. Even better would be “road tripping” by balloon. Think about it; throw a backpack and a tent into a balloon, float miles across the sky taking in the view, and then land in a field somewhere at night and camp out. Brilliant!

I hiked down the other side of the gorge. The trail said to the bottom of the gorge but really it just went downhill to where the gorge petered out into a stream. Oh well. I took a few pictures from the bridge over the gorge and headed out to find more covered bridges. About 4 miles west of Quechee is the Taftsville covered bridge. Many of these bridges are still in use so there’s no place to park and take pictures (as foolish leaf peepers such as myself tend to do). I had pulled over and gotten out and was taking pictures when I heard someone honking at me. I turned around, saw neither myself nor my car was in the way, and then saw some guying waving me over to his car. I thought maybe he wanted directions (for some reason people always ask me for directions-I must look like a local everywhere I go). When I walked over to the car I saw it was the same gentleman who was in the pizza place last night! I’m a freakin local after 12 hours! He kindly offered to take a picture of me in front of the bridge. How nice is that!?

I drove over into Woodstock and walked around the Marsh Billings Rockefeller Historic Site (the only NPS site in Vermont). The mansion was gorgeous but it was only available by tour starting at 10am and it was 8 am and I had a long way to go to get home so I just snuck around and took pictures. I took a great picture at the farm museum that truly encapsulates all that is Vermont; cows grazing in a pasture with a backdrop of fall foliage. If there was a covered bridge in the pasture covered in maple syrup it would be perfect. I stopped at two more covered bridges on my way out of Woodstock. I finally posted photos of this last day on Facebook a few days ago and Jess made a comment that said “ I bet you were sick of these freakin bridges by the end of your trip”. So true! I mean they’re pretty and quaint but after seeing 20 of them, they lose their luster.

That’s my style though. I exhaust one category of things (i.e. firetowers, covered bridges, hot springs, mountain passes, scenic byways etc.) and then I’m done with them the rest of my life. I like to come back from my trips and feel that I’ve conquered something. I would have been a great Viking.

After overdosing on covered bridges I was ready to head back into New York but I wanted to see some more “mountainy” foliage since the day had dawned bright and sunny. I decided to drive back through the Adirondacks to extend my trip since I’ve never been to the ADK’s in the fall and I’ve heard it’s gorgeous.

I went old school on this trip, foregoing Jack a lot of the time (sorry friend) so I consulted my AAA map and saw that I could cross over into Fort Ticonderoga from Vermont. I was driving along in some very rural country when I saw a sign that said Ferry to New York. That’s strange I thought. So I turn on Jack and he says “In 4 miles board ferry”. What!? Apparently I didn’t see the ferry designation on the map. Next thing I know I round a bend and there was a stop sign a few feet from Lake Champlain. There was a shack with a sign posted that said the ferry runs all day and costs $9. It was the cutest damn thing. After waiting a few minutes it pulled up to the dock, I drove on and in 5 minutes I was across. I did take the opportunity to walk around the deck and take some nice pictures of the shimmering sun on the water while we were in transit. It was my cars first ferry trip and I think Gray Rock enjoyed it.

I drove into Fort Ticonderoga but it was expensive and looked exactly like Castillo de San Marcos in Florida so I walked the perimeter, took a few shots and left (just like in the days of yore!). I’d never been that far east in the ADK’s and it was quite pleasant. There weren’t many people out and I rode along with the windows down. I stopped at a few lakes to stretch and take some pictures. Despite all the incidents I’ve had in the Adirondacks I really love those mountains. It’s probably because they almost feel like Colorado to me and I’ve really been missing the West lately. I miss having the mountains at my doorstep to escape too.

By the time I got to Utica to get on the Thruway I was starving. I got gas but decided to just grab something to eat on the Thruway. Well if you don’t know the Thruway only has rest stations every 20-30 miles and with my luck the first one I came to only had a Starbucks. I typed food into Jack and he recommended I exit and drive 10 miles. Damn it Jack. Finally I found a McDonalds right off the Thruway and got some food.

Overall I really loved this trip. Despite the rain, the weather was warm, the leaves were gorgeous and the views were spectacular. I even got home on a Saturday to give myself a day to unpack, do laundry, and relax before going back to work. That’s the first time I’ve done something like that and it was much easier to transition back that way. It’s been a month since I’ve returned and I’ve been dragging out these blog posts so as not to overload people with the trip. Plus I have nothing else on the horizon for a while so I need to make my life look interesting. I might do a PA road trip over Thanksgiving but I’m running out of my hotel coupons so we’ll see. Next year though is the “Battlefields, Blossoms, and the Birthplace of America” road trip. It’s so ambitious I have Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and a 7 page Word itinerary. Oh and Jess will be making commemorative t-shirts. We’ll be going to Philadelphia, Washington DC (during the Cherry Blossom Festival) and Gettysburg. Epic!