On The Road With Fastfreta...Pennyslvania and Beyond

I'm on the train to DC en route to Pittsburgh. This is my least favorite train, the single level, with not a lot of leisure space. There's no observation car, however there is a lounge car, but it's so cold that I had to go back to my seat. Fortunately I'm traveling overnight (8pm to 1pm the next day), with no real need to wander around the train. So off to sleep I go, or better yet off to sleep I try to go. I followed my rule of not propping my feet up, or reclining my seat, and it worked. Having a seatmate didn't bother me this time, I was actually able to get at least a few hours of sleep off and on, so no real complaint there.

This is my second time in DC, during my time on the road. However, this time I did some sightseeing. Actually the most impressive site was the Martin Luther King Jr., monument. Although I have pictures of other notable places, the real draw was the monument. The excitement was somewhat tempered by the impending threat of Hurricane Irene. The threat of the storm didn't prevent the city from being inundated, of course, even with that crowd, more were expected. As a matter of fact while en route we were informed that the dedication, set for the following Sunday, was postponed, so some cut their trip short along the way.

The trip to the monument was about a five mile walk from the suggested subway stop. We, I actually picked up "friends" along the way, as I always do, anyway we asked directions as we went along. Somewhere along the way we got our wires crossed, and walked around "Robin Hood's barn," (an old saying), to get there. On our way back we found that we'd walked about 2 miles out of the way. Oh yeah, it was well over 100 degrees, and very humid, but that didn't deter any from accomplishing their goal, that is to walk to the monument, and walked they did, almost like a pilgrimage.By the way my new "friends," were, a very nice couple, Brenda and Elmore Bouy, from Mississippi, and an equally nice young lady, Lenore, a flight attendant living in DC. Somewhere along the way Lenore, and I lost Brenda and Elmore and proceeded on by ourselves. Thanks to Lenore, I was able to accomplish my goal of seeing some of the sights of DC. She also saw to it that I got back to Union station, by passing me off to two very nice young men who were on their way to the station. Check out my pics below.

I'm here, Pittsburgh, PA! I arrived at 11:30 pm, at which time I was picked up by my cousin. This is my first visit to Pennsylvania, I've always wanted to visit, but never took the time to do so, but here I am now.

Pittsburgh is turning out to be one of the most relaxing legs, and believe me I needed it. I'm trying to tell these old bones not to give out, but they just won't cooperate, I try to tell them that 64 is not that old, but they're not listening, and want to rest too much for me. I try to tell them you can rest when you're dead, again they won't listen, so periodically rest I must. I'm sitting on this very lovely and relaxing porch, reading, writing, and listening to music. Oh joy of joys.

My two beautiful cousins, Anna and Doris, are so good to me. They won't let me do anything, they're spoiling me, oh well, I'll take it. Let me tell you my normal routine since I've been here. I wake up at whatever time I wake up. I come down stairs, get me a cup of coffee, go back to my room, relax, read, listen to music or watch a little TV, play a game or two on my tablet, and later in the morning, I go back down to an already prepared breakfast. After breakfast I go to the porch for a little of the same as the morning, reading, listening to music, but this time I add a little writing. The porch seems to be so conducive to writing that I now do most of my writing out here.

After an uplifting spiritual meeting, I go back to the house, and ready myself for remainder of the day. Anna took me to Mount Washington, commonly called, "Lookout Mountain." I have a touch of acrophobia, (Phobias-Phobias-PhobiasOh-So-Many-Phobias), so you can just imagine how I must have felt when approaching the edge of the lookout, but I braved it, and I was fascinated to say the least. The city sits for the most part on hills overlooking waterways. I found this to be quite fascinating, see pics below.

Downtown Pittsburgh held more interesting sights. The most fascinating of all was the totally glass structure, standing in the courtyard you're surrounded by the structure, which I now know is the PPG building, (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Glass). In that same courtyard was a very interesting set of dinosaurs figures, one representing Heinz Ketchup, aka.,(catsup) the other two, I don't know what they represent. Anyway, all in all the center was very interesting.

Maybe I'm biased, but I can say I have a very lovely, and loving family. The family of the house consisted of Anna Louise, Doris, and Deanna,(picture to come), Anna Louise's, daughter. Of course the other members of the immediate family lived elsewhere they are, the twins, Louie and Lewis, and wife Beverly, Charlene, Doris' daughter, her husband Tony, and their two grandsons, Michael, and Nashir.

I want to warn you, if you're ever invited to this home, Don't Go! You won't want to leave, because they will thoroughly spoil you. They won't let you cook, clean or do anything but rest, and idle your time away. So, if you're not up for that Don't Go. Needless to say, that's just what I did, Idle my time away, and I must add it was refreshing, but that got old, so I had to leave, LOL! No, really I didn't want to leave. I found the key to continuing a journey such as mine. That's not to stay too long in one place, especially if you're enjoying yourself, and enjoyed myself I did, so much so, as I said, I didn't want to leave.

Oh, I didn't tell you, these two sisters can COOK! I couldn't believe I could eat so much. Let me tell you, Anna made a chicken salad that I'm still salivating over now. I even took a sandwich with me on my trip back to Atlanta. Then there's Doris' mustard pork chops, yum, yum. You see I had to leave or I'd be too fat to fit in the clothes I took with me. Oh, that's not all, but I wouldn't want your mouths to water, and you not be able to do anything about it. Again, I say don't go there.

My train to DC is late, purposed departure, 4:50, we finally leave at 6:30. My kind of train, double deck. For the 8 plus hours on this leg I spend most of it in the observation/lounge car with a very lovely woman named Mary. Mary, and I spent hours chatting, both learning interesting things about each other. Mary had a very interesting and captivating life, she'd just come back from seeing her one, and only grandchild. Mary swore she didn't take good pictures, but to her surprise she made a very lovely picture, after all she was a lovely woman. She offered, and I accepted, to buy my lunch, (see what kind people you meet on the train). This time allowed my seatmate the needed time for a long nap. She'd been in the station all night, so she really needed to sleep. But during the last hour I went back to my seat, and had stimulating conversations with the latter half of the train., (about 8 of us). So stimulating that we, didn't hear the attendant tell us to disembark. My very lovely seatmate Janice was so engaging I wished I'd spent more time with her.

Oh, a very interesting twist to this last leg to Atlanta, (Washington, DC, to Atlanta), I met someone who could possible be a relative. Just so you know, I am not afraid to engage anyone, that will let me, in conversation. Here's what happened, I asked as I always do, where this very nice, and personable, young lady lives, what she does, etc, and mind you, I do listen, because I'm interested in the lives of all I meet. Anyway she mentioned a place that most of my extended family hails from. So, from that we are going to investigate whether we're related, or not. I actually did that once, and found a distant cousin all the way out in California, so you just never know. See pictures below. All in all this was a very nice leg of the trip.

Okay, so I did make this one a little long, but it seems a lot went on in that one week to Pittsburgh, and back to Atlanta. I hope you at least took a look at the pictures, and part of the explanation. Well, I'm headed back to California in about a week to take in the Los Angeles County Fair, and another of my annual events, "The Taste Of Soul, Los Angeles. I'll fill you in on those after the fact.

So, goodbye for now, stay tuned, more to come.