Pittsburgh, PA Visit (Sept. 11th - Oct. 4th, 2011)

My Dearest Aunt

America's Shortest Covered Bridge 18 ft.

America's Longest Covered Bridge 613 ft.

Top of Monongahela Incline

Up Monongahela Incline

McConnells Mill

On a very sad anniversary (Sept. 11th) we headed to Ohio on our journey to Pittsburgh, Pa. to visit the Kohut relatives.   We were surprised to find out not all Ohio State Parks were as nice as Maumee State Park east of Toledo (where we have stayed a couple of times in the past).  The only one comparable to Maumee was called West Branch State Park east of Akron, Ohio. We found out you have to be careful of what Ohio State Park you choose.  Not all have electricity and water hookups and other added amenities that we became accustomed too.  Continuing on to Pennsylvania along the back-roads we decided to check out the Pennsylvania State Parks.  Raccoon State Park was west of Pittsburgh so we thought we would give it a try.  It was a very scenic, wooded park but only had electric hook-ups and very out dated restrooms.  Plus the satellite service was not very good (phones/internet/tv) and knowing that we were going to stay in the Pittsburgh area for some time decided after one night to move to another membership park of ours (Passport America) that was located northeast of Pittsburgh and was much closer to our destinations.  It was called Mountain Top Campground and it was named rightly so.  We had a fantastic scenery view of the valley below surrounding us.  We ended up camping there for 10 days while we visited with aunts, uncles, cousins and our niece in various areas and views of Pittsburgh.  We spend four days just with Mike's 93 year old aunt who needed work around her house done. It was sad to leave her each day because what she did need was full-time care.  It was great to see our niece and where she lived; and Mike's cousin and his wife who were around our age watching a Steeler's game with them.  After all our visits, we stopped short just north of Pittsburgh at McConnells Mill S.P. for lunch. As we head back to Michigan we stayed a few nights at another one of our membership parks (Thousand Trails) which was called Kenisee Lake in northeast Ohio.  The only problem there was the weather.  The ground was already saturated like a sponge and more rain and colder temperatures were moving in.  So time to move out -- but not before we received a fresh baked peach pie from a local baker delivered right to our site.  We had also visited a few Covered Bridges in this area known for them. 5 of the 17 .  This is a park we would return to -- hopefully to better weather.  Going along the Lake Erie shoreline through Ohio we stayed at the  East Harbor State Park which was a very nice park and was decorated for their annual big Halloween turnout on the weekend.  So back to Michigan we go to complete maintenance duties on the vehicles and visit with as much family as we could to say our good-byes for the winter.