Today was my first time in Pittsburgh, and when I say first time, I mean first real time. The other times was simply for the airport which is outside Pittsburgh, but this time I went right into the heart of the city. The plan was simply, drive into Pittsburgh, meet up with great friends, ride bikes in an area, and then meet up with more friends for dinner. This may sound simple to many, and boring to most, but for me it was an adventure!
The first adventure began when I drove into the city. I know, an adventure driving into Pittsburgh? Yes! For me it was! It was also a huge victory! I will explain. :)
I know it sounds strange and ridiculous....but I sort of have a phobia of cities......it's alright, you can laugh, I don't blame out. But in my whole I maybe entered a city a whopping ten times, and those ten times were mainly field trips to museums and two trips to Phillie's games. On top of that when it comes to driving, lots of lanes and turn-offs freak me out. And to top it all off, I get loss incredibly easy, like for real, the first time I drove to the airport I had a friend's written directions, googlemaps directions, and a garmin, and I still got hopelessly lost and detoured for two hours. So like I said, I don't belong in cities.
So back to the story, here I am driving myself into the city, the oil city, the city f bridges, 446 bridges to be exact :) , and I am freaking out....MAJORLY. For starters the bridges appear, and off of the bridges are various turns to go different ways, and some bridges have turn offs right before hand that turn under the bridge. Totally Terrifying! Trust Me! So here I am crossing the bridge, a bit in Awe from the views, quite spectacular I must say, but also freaking out because the cars around me are speeding up and changing lanes like we are playing musical chairs and I'm just trying to figure out which of the four, and sometimes five, lanes I should be in to go where I want to go. th street, 7th street, Madison ave, orange belt, green belt, Squirrel Hill, Shady Side, South Side, North Shore, Belts! What is with the belts! I DON'T GET IT! At this point the music and air are off because I can't chance missing directions from the Garmin, and I'm leaning forward for God knows what reasons. Up and down, left and right, stay left but keep right, stay right now merge into left lane for exit, WHAT IS GOING ON! I JUST CAN'T HANDLE IT! Clearly at this point I am on the verge of saying 'screw it, I'm done.' Finally my Garmin tells me I'm only five minutes away.
VICTORY!
and then it happens.....dun....Dun.....DUUUUUUUUUN!
I'm headed down this road that started parallel with the city but slowly sloped down the mountain side. The sights were gorgeous at first because the mountain side was a mixture of cobblestone and mountain side, then it grew into the road to the dead. I see a green light about half a mile ahead, tops, and then this guy on a bike comes out of nowhere! I hit the brakes as he just flies into the road on his bicycle and the starts weaving in and out of the road avoiding the parked cars! ARE YOU NUTS BUDDY!!! To make it better everything gets dark around me..........I'm headed under a bridge! UNDER! A this point there are two lanes on my side, two for opposing traffic, and then we go under the bridge................and I hit a red light..........................ahead are four to five lanes and to my right are three more. I'm stopped at a red light and simply looking around in fear asking where I am and how I will get out. Then the horns go off. I'm sitting in my little S10 pick up and horns are blaring all around me echoing from the vibrations off the walls and then the mother of all horns blasts into the scene as she and her twin come to a sudden screeching halt out of nowhere from inside the wall next to me! Yes! The wall!!! That gorgeous cobblestone mountain side now has two.......TWO semi's coming out of its crevices and I don't know where to go!!! Now I'm just sitting in my truck panicking because these trucks are turning, one of witch towards me, and the nut on the bike is just sitting, well standing, next to my passenger door and this truck is coming right at me. At this point I have lost it. I'm terrified of the city and now I'm sitting here under a bridge waiting to die.It's official, it's the end. I close my eyes as the truck continues to turn towards me since there are cars behind me so I cannot move anywhere between them and the psychotic bike. Horns blast some more and I just don't want to see my demise. Then everything goes quiet........................................I slowly open my eyes and see the first truck, my truck, is gone. Thank God! The horns start up again as the other truck, turning left, begins to blast due to a car in the way. Finally my light turns green. I hit the gas and fly out of there as fast as possible before any other bikes come outnof sidewalks or semi's out of walls!
About 5 minutes later I make it to The Sloth Whisperer's (SW) apartment, and now the real adventure begins. My tour guides were her and her boyfriend (F), and we grab out bikes and go. Now here is the tricky part, I can't tell you exactly where we were other than Pittsburgh, but I can tell you what I saw which was all amazing.
At first the bike ride was purely gorgeous simply because of where we were riding. SW and F took me along these grgeous bike paths that I would have never expected to find in a city. They ran along the river and roads and even crossed some train tracks at one point which brought us to an adorable little, in my own words, nook of a tiny town like area that you would expect to find wandering the streets of Italy or England where everyone is happy and there are little bistro restaurants and privately owned shops. It truly amazed me how these little areas of shops and food would pop out of nowhere. We continued to ride around following paths and riding on sidewalks through the city when we had to go over a bridge. Here is where I was introduced to Pittsburgh's 'Bar on a Bike.' Yeah, tell me about it, bar on a bike. I was in complete and utter shock at the sight. At this point I still had absolutely no idea where I was headed and then it happened................................
The first sight I saw, after traveling on the gorgeous bike paths along the water that made me feel like I was in an endless park and through the city, came out from around the corner as we traveled along the river after passing through what to me appeared to be a park. At first I just heard it, and then we turned the corner and there it was...... THE Pittsburgh Fountain. Until this point I had only seen pictures and images on the news and here it was! The fountain! It was definitely a lot bigger than I was expecting, that's for sure! And it was positively gorgeous. That day I had no idea what my friends were going to show me and then I saw that fountain and it took my breath away. The size alone was positively massive beyond belief, and then the views around the fountain were just as gorgeous. On one side across the river was Heinz field, at least if I remember correctly it was, and the other was a Pittsburgh mountain side. SW even laughed at me, or rather with me, when I asked her what the large old looking red and black car was that was slowly creeping up the mountain side.
She enlightened me by informing me that it was the Duquesne Incline, which at the top of the incline to me looked like an evil lair or a bat cave. Maybe it sounds lame to Pittsburghers but, I honestly cannot wait to take a ride up it, which I have heard that it is beautiful to do at night time.
Well we stayed at the fountain for about twenty minutes after we rode our bikes around it once, and then SW turned to me and exasperatedly exclaimed, "We should show her statues! F can we show her the statues! You have to see them! They are huge and great for taking awkward pictures with!"
At this point I already figured that no matter what it was SW and F were wanting to show me that I would be completely breathless and amazed. I couldn't wait. So after a few snap shots were carried on our ways and went to the 'perfect statues to take awkward pictures with' None the less, SW was right. They were the perfect statues to take awkward funny pictures with.
The first she showed me was the Mr. Rogers statue. Now this may make me sound stupid. but I had not actually known that Mr. Rogers was from the Pittsburgh area until after I came out to college at SRU. Maybe that is pathetic, maybe it isn't, but either way it was true. Then again I wasn't from the area so how would I know unless I was a Mr. Rogers fanatic. None the less SW and F showed me the statue. For starters, it was huge......no.....not huge......Ginormous! I'm used to statues that are life size or smaller, this one was bigger than my truck. (And to be honest, from behind it looked like a statue of King Kong) But here it was, a ginormous statue of Mr. Rogers that looked like King Kong from the back, and yes it was incredibly easy to take awkward funny pictures. The most popular was to sit in his lap since most people could get there. Obviously SW and I had fun with that one.
The next statue SW couldn't wait to show me was of Art Rooney. Again, we had to pose and have our fun, who wouldn't! So here is what SW and I came up with. I personally think we were quite creative.
After the second photo shoot was completed, Adventure Time continued! SW and F showed me Heinz Field, PNC Park, The Jail, North Shore, and various other buildings and sights as we continued to ride bikes throughout the city. All in all, I was utterly amazed throughout the entire experience which added up to 10.7 miles. The fun and sights were endless, and I truly cannot wait to do it again and see more of the city. When and where my next adventure will be, I do not know, what I do know is that it will be a blast.
Thank You Again SW and F for the amazing day! You guys truly are amazing friends!
