All across PA

Coming down from New England we had two stops planned in Pennsylvania, Mansfield and Pittsburgh.

The company Jen works for is expanding its operations to include the Shale gas find in the northeast US and they decided to open a shop in the middle of nowhere (Mansfield, PA).  We were eventually headed to Pittsburgh and this was kind of on the way.  And when new offices open or new management comes in, Jen gets involved to help bring them up to speed.  A few things have fallen in place on this trip regarding locations and timing, like the overland rally in North Carolina and the Stanley Cup parade in Boston; this was just another stop that fell into place.

We left Wells State Park Monday morning with a fairly long way to go to reach Mansfield.  We took a lunch break in Albany, NY, on the way and made it to Mansfield around dinner time on Monday.  We found a campground for the night, Hills Creek State Park, and drove over there first.  After cleaning up, we went to meet up with some of Jen's coworkers from the office for dinner.  The trip to dinner was complicated by the unreliable cell service and many roads without signs.

Hills Creek seemed busier than the last campground, but it wasn't too crowded. They had recently renovated their facilities and had nice bathrooms to shower in.  I dropped Jen at the office in the morning and went off to do some laundry and wash the car.  She worked till 4 and we decided to take off for Pittsburgh since it was a 5 hour drive away.

While in Pittsburgh, we were going to stay at my parent's old house, except it was different than every other time I've stayed in it.  My parents just recently moved to Midland, TX, for my mom's new job and they were selling the house in Pittsburgh.  The place was empty inside and it looked so much bigger than I remember (without all our junk all over the place).  We pulled into the garage and basically set up camp in the house.  We moved our mattress inside to take advantage of the air conditioning and we used our camp chairs in the backyard to sit around a small fire.  It was nice being able to visit the house one more time.

On Wednesday, we planned to catch the Pittsburgh Pirates day game starting at noon.  Even though the Pirates have been awful for all the years I can remember, the ballpark they play in (PNC Park) is really a nice place to watch a game.  We drove into the city and parked at the Rivers casino for free and walked over to the stadium.  

While waiting at the ticket window, the guy in front of us turned around and offered us two coupons for free game tickets.  There was a charity run a few weeks back in the city and the Pirates had these coupons as giveaways so we got into the game for free.

Jen did a little work from her iPad while we were at the game. After the game (Pirates beat the Orioles 6-5), we drove over to Pittsburgh's Strip District (not what it sounds like).  The Strip, as its called around town, is just an area of shops, bars, and restaurant.  Its also home to Pennsylvania Macaroni Co., my mother's favorite place to trade money for Italian food.  Since she had been living in Texas for a while now, she was going through Penn Mac withdrawal and asked me to have several items shipped over to her.  While there, we also picked up some ingredients for a pizza for dinner and got my sister a few things for her upcoming birthday.

We then went to the South Side to meet our friend Lori at a cool restaurant with a great beer list, Fat Heads.

They have a reputation for their sandwiches which are...wait for it...as big as your head.  After dinner, Jen and I went back to my old house for one more fire and camp out.

Our plans for Thursday were to visit and stay over at a cabin that Lori was renting for the summer in Donegal, PA.  Donegal is an hour east of the city and up in the mountains.  There are two ski resorts in the area which I've been to several times, but I've never seen the area in the summer.  It was a beautiful drive up there and the cabin was tucked away in the woods.  We made pizza with the supplies from Penn Mac, shared a few bottles of wine, and sat around a bonfire outside.

We woke up Friday morning to see Lori off to work and then showered up and left for Ohio.