Trippin’ Down Petroleum Ave. – 4000 Miles and Finally Here! – August 28, 2020

The sky was dark when we left Youngstown this morning. When we turned north onto PA State Highway 8, it was like driving at night. Rain started falling and continued for the remainder of our very long day.

Our destination was Oil City, PA. Back in the summer of 1968, Karen and her family moved from Placentia, CA to Oil City when her father’s employer transferred him. Karen spent her sophomore year of high school in this town before the family returned to California for the 1969 school year. Over the years, I’ve heard many stories of what it was like to be a California kid being suddenly inserted into a small community in northwest Pennsylvania. Today was Karen’s chance to revisit the site after 52 years.

Our first stop was the old Victorian house where the Conroy family lived. This part of town is now known as the Southern Historical District. The stately houses in this area are still well-preserved. The land along the Allegheny River rises steeply from Front Street (along the riverbank) up through a series of numbered streets. Karen lived on Third Street, which is already high up on a hill.

 

The house still looks remarkably similar to when Karen lived there. It has three stories, an attic, a basement, two living rooms, a dining room, six bedrooms and three bathrooms, with a separate stairway from the kitchen to the upper floors. Karen remembers the house, the street and the distances between various points in the neighborhood as being much bigger and farther than they are today. I think this is a common sensation when you return to a place you experienced in your youth.

 

From there, we drove down Division Street toward the river. Karen remembers sledding down this steep street in the winter all the way from Third Street to Front Street. Based on the amount of traffic we saw on First Street (not to mention the stop sign for traffic on Division), this would not be very safe today. We made a quick stop at the banks of the Allegheny River, where Karen used to play in the ‘peanut butter pond’, which were mud flats lining the river.

 

After crossing Petroleum Ave., and then crossing the river, we went into the old downtown area. Karen remembers walking across what was likely the Center Street Bridge on bitterly cold winter days with a brisk wind blowing down the river.

 

Oil City is known for being one of the major players in the early days of the petroleum business. Oil was discovered there in the mid-nineteenth century and the place became the center of the oil industry. At one time, it was the headquarters for Pennzoil and Quaker State Oil. Apparently, it is also the place where the bane of the oil business – the oil spill – got its start. A plaque near the Center Street Bridge explains this.

 

Next on our tour was Oil City High School. Karen remembers riding the school bus ‘way out of town’ to get to the school. In actuality, the school is at the top of the very steep hill that rises from the river. I don’t know how the bus drivers get up and down those hills every day, but they’ve got to be skilled bus operators. School did not appear to be in session today (kids are probably doing virtual classes), so we had no problems getting a photo.

 

With a steady rain falling, we drove southeast down through the rolling foothills of the Appalachian Mountains through central Pennsylvania toward the Maryland border. We took a combination of two lane roads and interstate highways, since there is no direct route into the Washington, D.C. area. We passed through many quaint little towns that look like they haven’t changed much in the past 150 years. Along one of these highways, we grabbed outstanding pulled pork sandwiches from Gio’s ‘Award-Winning’ BBQ (the 1987 newspaper article documenting this award, posted on a wall inside the restaurant, appears to validate the claim) and wolfed them down in the next door trucker’s parking lot.

Many hours later, and with the rain coming down even harder, we made a stop in Herndon to say hello to Stephanie and Stephan. Stephanie took us over to say a quick hello to our friends, Al and Mercia. Today is Al’s birthday and he’d organized an outdoor concert at his house in celebration. The huge thunderstorms that moved in this afternoon caused this to be postponed until Sunday.

 

Finally, with just under 4000 miles on our trip odometer, we drove through rain, thunder and lightning to Uncle John’s house in Arlington, where we’ll be staying during our visit here in Virginia. Many thanks to Andrew and Alison for setting this up for us. And, a special thanks to Andrew for the fresh chicken he left us in the refrigerator!

 

Next:  Some R & R

 

Reunion – The Shawshank Misdirection – Forever Youngstown – August 27, 2020

 

Karen and I met her cousin, Dave, for breakfast this morning at a local Greek restaurant called Cosmos.  Properly socially-distanced, we ordered a hearty meal (the spinach and feta omelet must have had a half dozen eggs in it) while Karen and Dave compared family stories.

After breakfast, we visited Karen’s Aunt Carol (Dave’s Mom, and Karen’s Mom’s sister). Karen had not seen her aunt in more than 50 years before today. In accordance with strict protocol, only Karen and Dave were permitted (only two visitors at a time) to sit with Aunt Carol. I’m sure she enjoyed the company. It was great to see the small family reunion in the shaded outdoor patio.

 

We left Fort Wayne at noon. Karen, in her capacity as navigator of the trip, set a course for us that took us due east on State Highway 30. A couple of hours later, she awoke from a brief snooze to find that I had somehow wandered off course. Somewhere just west of Mansfield, OH, we were now headed south.

Mansfield is known outside of Ohio for a few notable reasons. In the 19^th century, it was considered the ‘carousel capital of the U.S.’, due to its manufacturing of merry-go-rounds. Karen also informed me that in 1945, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart staged their high-profile wedding at a farm called Malabar, near Mansfield. In a more recent era of cinema, ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ was filmed in and around the Mansfield area, including the Gothic style Ohio State Reformatory building.

After consulting with Karen, we reversed course and got onto some local two-lane roads to get us back to the correct highway. One positive by-product of this error is that we got to see some small towns that we’d normally pass by.

Bucyrus, OH is one such place. It’s mottos, “The Small City in the Middle of Everywhere”, and “The Bratwurst Capital of Ohio” pretty much sum things up. The Wikipedia entry for the town’s ‘notable residents’, lists ‘Nate Thacker – high school graduate’. Enough said.

 

Further east, we also got to see the thriving metropolis of Massilion, OH. Going back even further in movie history, one of the main streets in this town is named for Lillian Gish, who spent a short time living here in the early 20^th century.

As we got close to Youngstown, OH, the skies opened up and the rain came down. We decided to call it a day and get a hotel. We found a place next to a cemetery, so it should be quiet. Speaking of quiet, we went to a local fish and chips place for dinner and found ourselves to be the only people in the dining room.

 

The rain cleared up for awhile just after dinner, but as I’m typing this note, the lightning and thunder are crashing and the rain is coming down in torrents. Time to say goodnight!

 

Next: Oil City, PA, then Southbound…

Eastern Time Zone, Finally – August 26, 2020

 

Today was a trek across the Land of Lincoln into Indiana, Karen’s ancestral home. Her parents were both Hoosiers (interesting tidbit: some accounts have it that the origin of the term, Hoosier, came from the 1830's when census-takers would ask, "who's there?"), and various aunts, uncles, and cousins still live here. Tomorrow, we’ll say hello to one of her cousins, David Martin, in Fort Wayne, IN.

On the way here, we went over a covered bridge in Amish country near Morrison, IL. The remainder of the trip was through miles and miles (again) of corn and soybean fields lined with wild flowers.

 

Next: On to Ohio and Pennsylvania

Silage and Mileage – Granny Basketball – Fantasy Baseball – August 25, 2020

It rained last night, but it did not make the temperature any cooler. This morning we hopped onto the Cass Street Bridge to cross the river back into Minnesota. From there, we turned south on route 16 south. The route turns into a series of county and state two-lane roads that wind their way south along and across the Mississippi River. We went back-and-forth from Minnesota-to-Wisconsin-to-Iowa-to-Illinois, etc. throughout the day.

 This is a quite scenic way to visit the region. The roads follow the rolling terrain and fields that line the river.

 

Silos are everywhere. In fact, the silos outnumbered the miles we put on the car today. Karen explained that Iowans claim to have perfected the design of present-day silos, which feature concrete or tiled towers and metal roofs.

 

In New Albin, IA we pulled into the City Meat Market and Grocery. The smell of smoked meat caught us as soon as we got out of the car. Inside, workers in the back room were making fresh smoked sausages on long strings. We ordered some large smoked meat sandwiches for the road (we had them for both breakfast and dinner tonight). We snapped a photo of the vintage firehouse, then continued south.

 

Down the river, we passed through the town of Lansing, IA. True to the city’s motto, we saw eagles in the area. Lansing is also the birthplace of ‘Granny Basketball’. It seems that several years ago, a local resident, feeling nostalgic for the good old days of women’s basketball, decided to organize a game. Long story short, the game caught on and now there are regional games and a national tournament (last played in 2019 in Lawrence, KS) with players from all over the country. Players must be women over the age of 50, who wear period-correct 1920’s bloomers. Technical fouls can be called for exposing too much flesh, and physical contact with other players is prohibited (sounds like a good game for current times). Underhand shots are worth 3 points, other shots are worth 2 points, and foul shots are 1 point. The granny teams also play boys and men’s teams as charity exhibitions, but the other teams must adhere to the granny rules.

 

Further down the road, we stopped at a road-side honey stand. As we've often found during our travels, Californians can be found anywhere. It turns out that the woman running the stand had lived in Studio City, CA back in the 1960's before returning to her home in Iowa.

 

The Iowa Scenic By-Way (Highway 52) took us south through rolling fields of corn as the Mississippi River turned southeast. Before long, we came to a railroad crossroads in Dyersville, IA and saw a sign pointing to the ‘Field of Dreams Movie Site’ just 3 miles off the road. They built it, so we had to come. Major League Baseball had planned to play a regular-season game (White Sox vs Yankees) this summer, but that game’s been postponed until 2021. There is a professional-grade field on-site, but it was off-limits for our visit.

 We took enough time to do some ‘corn-ball’ stunts on the movie-set field.

 

After another long day on the road, we crossed the river again for our hotel in Fulton, IL, where we ate the rest of our sandwiches and washed them down with some Potosi, WI beer.

 

Next: Ft. Wayne, IN