Made a pilgrimage to Pittsburgh last weekend with my dad for the homecoming football game. Quick domestic travel, always a welcome complement to the long international breed. Left the Lehigh Valley at 4 pm on Friday and returned 29 hours later. Just over 19 hours in the Steel City.
It’s amazing how a car, a road and a few tunnels makes it easy to cross a mountain range on a rainy fall night. The rest areas out past Harrisburg were full of Pitt gear, as expected. Hats, hoodies, umbrellas. With a couple logos, it would be easy for an outsider to ingratiate.
Around 10 pm on Friday, we bought ice cream sandwiches from a gas station for dessert (dinner was our first-ever trip to Chick-Fil-A). Waited in line behind a man in muddy, oily sweatpants as he consulted with the attendant on new types of chew, his Cub Scout-age son beside him. The young attendant had a cornflake-catching black beard and an old Steelers hat pulled low with hair winging out on all sides. Eyes-and-mouth-obscuring hair.
Pittsburgh used to be just a fort at the confluence of three rivers. Washington got licked out here, then tried again and had better results.
The innkeeper at the Super 8 motel has big silver wire rims, white hair to his chin, and a white moustache. Yet strangely he doesn’t look over 35. This man programs wake-up calls and is our last line of defense against oversleeping. We trust him.
Dad and I fell asleep quickly in the absence of wall-banging neighbors, but woke to a screaming baby at 5 am. A check of the cell phone revealed that I’d missed three calls from RESTRICTED between 1:12 and 1:35 am. No message.
What’s the history of Room 216 in the Monroeville Super 8 just outside of Pittsburgh? We don’t know, and we’re OK with that. Our assumption is that Linda K. (as per the tip envelope) keeps it relatively clean. Motels get a bad rap. Psycho, From Dusk Till Dawn, No Country For Old Men — what are the other classic motel movies? How frequently do people die in the shower? Dad, pulling out of the parking lot: “For 53 bucks, that was adequate, wasn’t it?” And that’s really the only question. (Despite the location across the street from The Cypher Co. Industrial Hose.)
Parked underground and rode from the U of Pitt campus to Heinz Field in one of many school buses packed with students. The radio played “Baby Got Back” and the girls in the seat behind us sang along.
We dedicated the day to food, football, and interstate highways, with success. Free Yuengling and fat wet sandwiches while the Panthers disemboweled South Florida, 41-14. Pitt didn’t punt nor give up a sack.
The city’s unbroken spell led to a second round of ice cream sandwiches at the Sideling Hill rest stop, only two Turnpike hours from home.
Tags: 3 Comments
I´m a Burgh native, from up Kiski valley.
What did you actually see of The Burgh? Whose homecoming was it, yours or Dad´s, or both? Which school? Who won the game? Wadjeet dare? Did you ever live in Pittsburgh yourself?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Hey Rebekah,
Thanks for asking for the low-down. Made a couple changes that should give the answers to some of these questions. It was a campus-and-Heinz excursion, with some tailgate grilling by the river thrown in for spice. Actually was my younger brother’s homecoming–he went to U of Pitt but couldn’t make the trip. Aside from Stadium Food, went to Pamela’s diner for breakfast. Hotcakes! Never lived there but would, think it’s a great town.
I have spent some quality time in Pittsburgh over the years on business / political / church related trips and everytime I fall in love with it again. It is one of the great cities in middle America