Not all who wander...

...are lost sez Tolkien but we were. We were SO seriously lost. My fault, as uszh. As we were leaving my father's town, I told Joe to take the left hand, not right hand fork. Instead of south to Pittsburgh we were zooming north into a gorgeously bucolic, completely unpopulated (‘cept for the occasional too-big-for-the-single-track-road truck), mountainous and densely wooded land. ¿donde esta la gente?
Joe sparked up some smart HELP-I’m-lost! app which seemed to be working splendidly...for a minute and then we lost our connection.

Yup, we were on our own and needed to go old school – we had to stop and ask for directions. Easy enough BUT this was a place without any signs of life. Sure, there were houses but no gas stations or corner stores and not one bloody soul in sight. VERY Twightlight Zone-ish. 

Eventually we came upon a way rustic roadhouse. Basically, a big, dilapidated shack with pics of deer covering the front windows along with the blaring legend, HUNTERS WELCOME. Yeah, the joint was screaming Danger Will Robinson so big and loud. I wussed out, telling Joe that as a Vagina American, I don’t feel safe walking into a mega dive full of drunk gun-toting men. I'm such a chicken!

Turns out the place was closed. WHEW. We drove on in search of humanity. In the distance I spotted a sign of life. WE FOUND A HUMAN (and he totally did NOT look like he was gonna mention any squealing pigs) By his side was a blindingly skinny, thankfully calm (but don't come a step closer) rottweiler. The very nice, not-banjo-playing young man and dog got us back on track. YEA!

Here’s the deal, our new route to Pittsburgh was breathtakingly gorgeous – much better than the strip mall, strip joint and big box christianist church riddled 119 and 22.

We got into Pittsburgh, aiming for the happening Strip District (a lot of stripping in this corner of the world, eh?) for a little shopping, gawking, wandering and interesting grub. First though, we got lost. Naturally.

On exiting the car, we took, once again, a left not right, and walked smack into a semi-bombed out looking 'scape. The hell?????? Turns out the neighborhood’s very small and sort of an island in a lake of still-in-progress redevelopment. One wrong turn (my specialty) and you enter a different universe.

Finally we arrived where we wanted to be, found loads of wonderful street art, Italian bakeries (none were open though. WHY?!), all sorts of interesting restaurants, a candy store!!!, tons of Pittsburgh sports paraphernalia vendors and a few hippy-groovy clothes sellers. The joint wasn’t jumpin’ BUT it was a late chilly, rainy Wednesday afternoon. Not exactly prime time.

Next time, I think I'd like to see a different part of the city – maybe check out the Carnegie and Andy Warhol Museums. Also too, not getting lost might be a fun switch.

This morning we jet back home where I'll be guilt tripped by at least one cat. Sure, Jen and Oni were here and fed me BUT YOU WEREN'T!  My kitten – she's a tyrant, I tells ya!