Saturday, Oct 15, 2011
Gulf News
It was somewhere between Black Lick, Apollo and Homer City — certainly east of Pittsburgh and south of Buffalo — that it hit me. I had to stop for petrol. I had watched the needle slowly sink into the red zone through kilometres of rolling forested hills. I could ignore it no more.
There is a shallow gene pool in this region — more of a puddle — and the petrol pump guy with four bottom teeth set in two non-vertical rows reinforced my feeling of isolation. It’s easy to get lost and disappear for ever in these Allegheny Mountains. Yeah, people at least visit the Appalachians further to the east, but here, in no man’s land, it’s a place for the lonely, the lost, the few and far between.
“Is it far from here to Johnstown,” I asked in a nervous and feeble attempt at conversation, as he watched the mechanical wheels spin on the rusting pumps.
“Never been,” he said. “Aren’t many come this way.”
Thank God for GPS.
The pump ticked away.
“Quiet out here,” I offered.
“Yep. Aren’t many come this way.”
I had come this way to visit the site of the United 93 crash in Shanksville, western Pennsylvania, and my internet search offered Johnstown as being the best place to find a hotel.
I paid up and left, checking in my mirrors that I wasn’t being followed, no truck would appear mysteriously over a hill and ram me, no 1960s’ supercharged Chevy Nova playing bumper grind for being an interloper in these partisan parts.
At Johnstown, the hotel wasn’t quite as billed on the internet. Drug deals were happening unimpeded in the parking lot, the sleaze of this steel and coal town out in full force on a rainy Sunday night. The town was closed, shops shuttered, nightlife as dark as the sheets of rain. The local paper advertised jobs for “Black Hat Miners”. This is coal country. All fuelling the steel furnaces in Pittsburgh.
In 1889, a dam gave way and washed away most of Johnstown. They rebuilt it. It’s almost time for another one.
The only available food is McDonald’s, dubious pizza parlours or the petrol station.
At least in the Appalachians they have a cuisine all of their own — I kid you not, it was recently featured on the Food Network — squirrel brains, possum pie and roasted raccoon. Probably all taste like chicken.
The open road in these parts is just that — open.
There were signs on the steep hills warning truckers to use their drag brakes and reduce gears. But there were no trucks clawing their way up or down these hills. Not even logging rigs hauling away trees.
I happened upon the Lincoln Memorial highway, named after the president who freed the slaves, won the Civil War and missed his curtain call at the Ford Theatre. It had as much life as he.
Hunger pains stirred but the occasional roadside diner looked too intimate, where a stranger dare not enter, where regular orders appeared without a word being spoken between customer and waitress. Better to head for the interstate, off these rarely beaten tracks, where economic development is the opening of a new diner and urban renewal means sweeping the porch.
At the Cracker Barrel, a chain of eateries, kirsch trinkets, floral cardigans and all things country and Western, the homely woman behind the counter is all charms at first.
But when she hears I’m from Dubai, and actually like living in the Gulf, and no, I don’t qualify for the US serviceman’s discount, her smile freezes, nigh spitting the obligatory “Have a nice day.”
But that’s the thing, you see.
Wandering in these hills, it is a nice day. There are no hoards of campers, tourists or visitors driving these routes. The state parks are empty. The parking places and viewing spots are empty. The views are spectacular. The air is clean up here. The mist is refreshing. The rain in soft. The trees are green and go on for as far as the eye can see. The birds are singing. The squirrels are collecting their nuts and acorns for the winter to come.
Yes, it’s easy to get lost up here in the back of beyond.
Thank God for GPS.
The Laurel Highlands Visitors bureau offers these facts on the region:
n The natural areas consist of ten state parks, forests and 11 state game lands.
n Laurel Caverns in Farmington is Pennsylvania’s largest developed cave, featuring a 430-acre natural park Kavernputt, an indoor minigolf course.
n Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Champion is Pennsylvania’s largest ski and year-round resort and was voted No 1 in the mid-Atlantic by readers of Ski magazine.
n For more than 41 years, the Pittsburgh Steelers have made their way each summer to training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.
n The Big Mac was first prepared at a McDonald’s in Fayette County.
n The banana split was first created by Dr David Strickler at his drug store fountain on Ligonier Street in Latrobe in 1904.
n George Washington lost his first and only battle at Fort of Necessity along Route 40, east of today’s Uniontown.
n Somerset County boasts Pennsylvania’s highest elevation at Mt Davis State Forest Natural Area. The rock is 3,213 feet above sea level.
n The Laurel Highlands receives the largest accumulative amount of natural snowfall in Pennsylvania.
n Fallingwater, built by Frank Lloyd Wright, is considered to be one of the most influential houses of the 20th century. This architectural wonder dramatically cantilevers over a rushing waterfall.
By Mick OReilly ?Senior Associate Editor
Gulf News 2011. All rights reserved.
