Iron City Pittsburg, PA is definitely not one of our usual stops.
We tend to prefer small towns. But the plan was to knock off another baseball stadium, #14 for me and #16 for Jeff. And since Pittsburg itself isn’t a great place for RVing, we stayed at Fox Den Acres, a huge campground located outside of Pittsburg in New Stanton.
We were hoping to ride the motorcycle into Pittsburgh, visit a couple of museums and then catch the Pirates/Dodgers game in the evening. Or maybe ride the motorcycles down to the Flight 93 Memorial in the morning and then catch the game in the afternoon.
At least, that was the plan…. Until Jeff discovered that the Slipper Springs he had just installed had flattened somewhere in the previous 2000+ miles.
So, he spent the day reaching out to the manufacturer who was more than quick to do a full replacement including upgrade. We have no proof but it sure seems they knew these things were going bad.
I spent the afternoon walking around the campground checking out the wonderful veteran’s memorial and lily pad ponds.
We did make it to the baseball game that evening.
For excitement, I decided to see if I could smuggle in my crochet to work on during the game. That is, until I realized I forgot my small scissors. I thought the big scissors would never make it in so Jeff gave me a pair of wire cutters. Hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
My review of PNC Park? Meh… Food was average, the stadium was OK, fan participation was basic. But at least they beat the Dodgers!
We were heading to Abingdon, MD the next day and stopped at the Flight 93 Memorial on the way. We’ve now been to all three of the 9/11 sites. It doesn’t get any less emotional.
And, as if the:
- e-tracks
- TV elevator motor
- Vent leak
- Fireplace cover
- and slipper springs weren’t enough in the first 9 days of the trip…
We arrived in Abingdon just before a massive thunderstorm caused 13 tornadoes in Maryland. It was raining as we attempted to back into a really tight and tricky site. In the rush, the back window of the truck broke when the 5th wheel turned too sharp and made contact.
We barely got set up when we were alerted to the first tornado warning. I grew up in OH but I do think this may have been Jeff’s first. Since the Charming Millers had just narrowly missed a major tornado in OK, we decided to head to the bathhouse for safety.
There was a second warning after the first along with an extended flash flood warning.
The next morning, we weren’t sure if we’d need to seal up the bottom of the rig so we didn’t float away!
We spent most of the day catching up on work, laundry and decompressing until our rescue squad arrived.
We’ll be spending the next month with the Charming Millers. Hopefully they bring us good luck!
