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We are driving through West Virginia again. This time the trees are mostly bare. Yet, the scenery is still great. Lori (I'm riding with Larry Bowman, Lori Ott and her daughter Rainey) pointed out that you can see the contour of the mountains. She's right.

But what's really cool is you can see in places how the trees follow the shape of the mountain.

The height of the trees parallel the altitude of the mountain. It's also neat to see the setting sun trickle through the maze of branch silhouettes. And sometimes an evergreen is thrown in the mix, its density makes a remarkable contrast.

We have the top down in the convertible Ford Mustang. I think it is messing up my penmanship. I will continue later.

11-5-2001

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Pittsburgh was a good trip-- still exhausting like the others. This time I had an added complication. Starting Friday afternoon I've been having stomach cramps.

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Despite the cramps I enjoyed my trip. Heinz Field, where the football game was played, is beautiful. It faces one of the three rivers that run through the city. There was a fountain out in the river too.

The city is well worn and has a variety of architecture. The many bridges vary in style and color. You'll see old buildings climb the hillsides of the river banks and then a contemporary building perched over them all. Driving back to the hotel after Tech's embarrassing loss I saw what appeared to be a fancy cathedral obscured by more modern buildings. That little bit reminded me of England.

We ate at an Outback Steakhouse that had windows overlooking their brand new baseball field. Then they had a walk out patio that overlooked one of the rivers and a couple of bridges, both painted a subdued yellow.

We saw the Pittsburgh Penguins play the Tampa Bay Lightening Saturday night. At first the facilities were more slummy than I expected. The chairs seemed worn and it didn't hold as many people as I imagined. But it had character and it seemed more intimate than watching a less caliber game with the Roanoke Express. There was a brother ship. Every time the Pittsburgh goalie blocked a shot, everyone yelled "Moose", his nickname. Note: They did not yell "Boo" like I originally thought.

There was clapping in unison. You could look all around and see people straight across, to the side or high above doing the same thing you were doing-- clapping and having a good time.

My favorite part was the two times Pittsburgh scored. Both times the assaulted goal was directly in front of us. When the puck actually went in you could see the silhouettes of everyone ahead of you jump up and pump their fists in celebration. I wish I could sketch the scene...but it would be too difficult considering how many people were in the earlier rows.

On the drive home Dublin and I listened to an audio book. "The Sky is Falling" by Sidney Shelton. Kevin said it was abridged.

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Anyway at first I kept asking "What's this book about?" "What's supposed to happen?"

After we listened to another meeting between the main character, Dana, and her adopted one-armed son's principal, I asked again, "So you don't know what's supposed to happen?"

To which Dublin laughed and said, "You know you are entirely too dependent on previews." Hehe! He's right. I think us as a society probably are.

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