H-94 New StantonL H 66 L 55 H H 70 L 51 T-STORMS M H 81 L 51 T-STORMS
L-66 C H 96 L 75
Bear update: The Bear says we are leaving Sabaka and Putlitz As Spies In Pittsburgh Party. TR says, “They are to look for piratesses.” Moose say, :”Maybe you should stay in Pittsburgh, Bear!” Lou says we will have a Alice The Goon Will Throw TR Out Of Here Party. We will serve Gooney Foods.
We woke up to sun. Will it last?
Tucson 104/81 Breezewood 86/66 tomorrow Brooklyn 92/72
We woke up at 7:30AM. We got dressed and drove to McDonalds for breakfast. We did computers. We checked out of room 109 at 9:43AM.We went through the Allegheny Tunnel, the one Monkey didn’t like. Our first pit stop was at the Somerset Plaza. They even had a doggie rest area that Sabaka took advantage of. The toll was $6.80. We got off the road at New Stanton and went to McDonalds. We got gas at Exxon. Then we got onto 70W. We got off 70W at exit 46B. As we were getting off in New Stanton Christine Lewis called. I couldn’t get to the phone. I’ve left three messages since then without a reply. I hope we can establish a time to drop off the pets. We passed Willowbrook Plaza. Signs for fresh produce lined the road. It reminded me of those fresh peaches in Arkansas. The next pit stop was at the Century III Mall at McDonalds. I downloaded more email.
I just got done talking to Christine Lewis. We have a drop off time between 3 and 4. We got onto Lebanon Church Road, which looks like a mess. There was a lot of local traffic. Now we’re getting onto Curry Hollow Road. The roads are so cut up and such a mess it’s unbelievable. Everything’s under construction. There are delays and detours. I hope we don’t have to come back this way. Broughton Road was next. IWe’re on Bethel Church Road looking for Meadowbrook.
We turned down Strathmore Lane and stayed for lunch on the back porch. Putlitz went into the back bedroom. I brought him out and put him in his stroller out on the patio. Sabaka stayed downstairs. Lots of strange cats were wandering around the house. I took photos of several of them. We left after 2:30PM to go to the Parkview Kennels. We didn’t have time to go grocery shopping. Besides Foodland was no longer on Fort Couch Road. Giant Eagle was no longer at the South Hills Village Mall. Nothing was the same there except the Sears Auto Center and Sears. We drove all the way through South Park to find the Parkview Kennels on Ridge Road. Nothing was the same there either. The big pool was gone. They had a wave pool instead. I didn’t see a sign for the buffaloes.
We saw the Sharcon Danes sign. These people have good A/C only in the kennels. Sabaka as a room on the very end at dog camp. I handed Christine Lewis Piutlitz’s carrier and snapped a photo after we wrote them $1200.00 in T-checks and drove away to get back to New Stanton. The way back seemed more familiar somehow than the way to Strathmore Lane.
We canceled our reservation at the La Quinta at the PittsburghAirport and returned to New Stanton for dinner at Cracker Barrel after we checked into HOJO’s.
This was the strangest day of the trip so far. It makes getting on the ship look easy!
The Pennsylvania Turnpike might be the original superhighway in America, but it shows its age. It seems antique, and it’ s neither green nor cool. In California the median strips along 99 are gorgeous. They are planted with colorful bushes. Here in Pennsylvania all they have are ugly concrete barriers. The lanes seem more narrow, and the road surface is in need of repatching and resurfacing. Nor are there many exits. In that respect it’s a stark contrast to Ii-40 with trucker’s stops every couple miles and constant exits even in rural Tennessee.I also miss the billboards. I suppose that the fact that it’s a turnpike instead of just a freeway or an interstate is the real problem. That works against billboards and exits. Let’s fund the highway a different way and make it less dull and more user-friendly.
P.S. Proof that somebody else didn’t like it either: we drove through a section of newly reconstructed highway. Guess what? The concrete barrier in the median strip vanished. It was replaced by grass.
MAILING =ADDRESS:
PARKVIEW KENNELS
ATTN; CHRISTINE LEWIS
2180 RIDGE ROAD
SOUTH PARK, PA 15129
The Dog/Cat Report:
Today Sabaka and Putlitz reach their trip destination — doggie camp in Pennsylvania.
Sabaka loved taking a walk in my parents’ backyard. He liked the shade around the pool. He went downstairs. My mother made him a hamburger. But he was too excited to eat it. We took him to the Parkview Kennels. He got settled in his quarters for doggie day camp this month.
Putlitz was on display this morning in the motel window. Everybody was gawking at him as usual.That was after he spent the night under the quilt on our bed playing footsies. He stayed in the back room in my parents’ house. I brought him out to say hello and put him in a stroller out near the patio. I handed him off to Christine Lewis at the Parkview Kennels and snapped a photo before we drove off.
It seems different not having the pets with us as we checked into the HOJO’s motel in New Stanton.
The whole day in the back of my mind I kept on thinking this was where Dora came from. I even snapped a photo along the turnpike to put in The Lusitania Plot.
Still no contract . . .
What next?