So back in July, once we were back from California, what did we get up to? Well, weathering that big heavy windstorm that destroyed many trees and branches of trees in a three-block radius of our house, but I've already talked about that. Oddly there was another intense windstorm about a month later, less destructive locally but more widespread.
But after that, there's the question of what to do, especially while the weather is nice. And the thing that we kept looking at was down in Pittsburgh. We hadn't been to Kennywood since the final Pinburgh (and that only a Starlite admission!). The American Coaster Enthusiasts run an annual Kennykon, a gathering of roller coaster enthusiasts at the park, and every year we debate whether to go. The proximity of Pinburgh had worked against it for several years; the pinball event was just close enough to the roller coaster event that it felt like too much driving back and forth too close together. But now?
And another factor: this year the park was celebrating some anniversary events. Well, the park always is; it's got a lot of history. But particularly it's the 55th anniversary of Thunderbolt, one of their wooden roller coasters with an origin in the 1920s. The 15th anniversary of Ghostwood Estate, an interactive dark ride. And if you think there's something about 15 years and my and ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger's relationship, yes. The last time bunnyhugger went to Kennykon was fifteen years ago, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Thunderbolt and the opening of Ghostwood Estate. And, you know, we hadn't yet been on Jackrabbit since it turned a hundred years old in the trying time of 2020.
So this was our plan, for the middle of July. We were going to go to Pittsburgh. Following is our story.
But before our story, have pictures of the letterboxing hike.
Nice dramatic moment of the trail here, with a near-vertical wall of rock here.
And here's an anomaly: why is there a chunk of good-quality tile floor there?
The location of the checkered tile (see the center of the picture). Turns out this is a legacy of the park's more developed days, when there were more event space buildings. Most of them were demolished as part of making the park more believably a park. Which left me wondering whether the trail we followed here was ever something that people used to get around, or whether it was entirely a creation of the parks department. And, if a creation, how they went about designing it.
bunnyhugger pausing to examine the flowers.
Lower right corner has a chunk of what looks like concrete surrounding an iron spike. I think we suspected this represented an old, lost bridge, but it's hard to tell from the photos that I have.
And here's a much more convincingly vertical wall along the trail. I think this might have had mechanical assistance.
Trivia: United Fruit sponsored the upbringing and education of Fidel and Raúl Castro. Source: Bananas: How The United Fruit Company Shaped The World, Peter Chapman.
Currently Reading: Cuba: An American History, Ada Ferrer.
