Family and Home
As we started the last week of our trip, we woke up to leave Chicago kind of late, as we wanted to let the rush hour traffic die down some. We headed to Lakeshore Drive to see Lake Michigan one more time, but it was again covered by a layer of fog, just as it had been in Milwaukee. So we drove on.
We passed through northern Indiana (more cornfields!) and turned southwest shortly after passing Gary. We saw US Steel's Gary Works from the highway; it's a shell of what it used to be. They are still making steel from scratch, however, one of the few plants left in the United States to do so.
We missed our desired exit off I-90 and almost immediately got stuck in a long line of traffic. We eventually made it to the next exit, but not before we came upon the wreckage of a tractor-trailer that had gone well off the road.
It's a little amazing to us that we didn't see more stuff like that. We only saw the remnants of a couple of accidents, and none of them were really bad.
The storm that had slammed Chicago the day before intensified over Indiana and Ohio. Streams were out of their banks and many fields were flooded. It was a beautiful day to drive, however, as the storm had cleared the Canadian wildfire smoke from the air.
We made it to Ann's sister's house outside Columbus, Ohio in time for a nice dinner and wonderful visit. We saw the nieces and nephew over the next couple of days and also saw our great-nephew, a toddler who had no idea who we were and kept his distance.
We had a great time at Fomo Pizza and Sports Bar, where our nephew is a bartender. The pizza was good, the people were friendly, the beer was cold and the drinks were great. It's in an exurb north of Columbus but if you're up that way we recommend it.
We had a really nice dinner with family at The Top, an old-time steakhouse in Columbus that throws you back the 1960s. There was a piano bar with a musician who was at least 80 years old and bent over double when he walked. But he could play whatever you asked him to play. No music, just memory. Great food, highly recommend it.
We headed to Pittsburgh the next day, where we had a large family gathering and Phil cooked Chicken Piccata. It was great to see Ann's mother, brother and sisters, nieces and nephews and significant others. We always have a good time when we are together.
The next night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Bistro 19, a very good restaurant in Mt. Lebanon, a Pittsburgh suburb where Phil lived when he went to high school. The restaurant is only a few blocks away from his old home; being back in the old stomping grounds always brings back a flood of memories. The names on the storefronts have mostly changed and the restaurants have improved, but it's still very familiar.
Over the course of this long adventure we were able to mix in visits with our family all over the country, which was part of the purpose. It wouldn't have been the same without those times spent together, and doing so at the end of the trip put an exclamation point on the entire adventure.
We got up early the next morning to head home. But first, one more Frank Lloyd Wright experience at Fallingwater, the dramatic home he designed in the western Pennsylvania highlands for the Kaufmann family.
It is truly a wonder, both in terms of its compatibility with the surrounding landscape and its design. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the structure really should not be standing anymore. Significant work has been done to stabilize the lower level of the home to keep it from crumbling into the creek and waterfall it is built above.
We learned that Wright believed homes like Fallingwater should not be built to last forever, but just for the time that the owners were around to enjoy it. They are part of the natural landscape and should eventually succumb to nature, just as the landscape does.
But that hasn't happened, and isn't likely to anytime soon. We highly recommend a visit.
We got back on the road for one last 3-hour drive on roads we've driven countless times. It was a time of reflection for us, but anticipation as well. We have had an incredible adventure, one that cannot be matched.
We have seen things and been places we've wanted to see and be for decades. We have enjoyed spending time with family and friends who have scattered from coast to coast to coast. We drove on roads we had never been on and likely never will again.
We drove on Interstates 5, 10, 15, 16, 20, 25, 35, 40, 59, 68, 70, 71, 79, 80, 90 and 95. We drove on countless US, state and provincial highways, including Route 66. We drove on county roads and gravel roads. We drove in 27 states and one Canadian province.
It was almost a year in the planning and 104 days in the doing. We drove 12,495 miles and the Road Warrior never let us down.
At long last, we turned into our neighborhood, onto our street and down our driveway. We were Home.
But there are more adventures ahead! The planning has begun, tickets have been bought and restaurants scouted online.
For our wonderful readers, thank you for following along with us! We hope you enjoyed it and save this URL, because as our old Texas friend Robert Earl Keen sings, "The Road Goes on Forever!"
Stay tuned....
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