On the Road: Down into Pennsylvania

Our western New York home is close to the Pennsylvania border - it's just over the wooded hills we can see from our house. People like to go and shop in PA because there's no sales tax on clothes or some such. Well if we were near Philadelphia I'd consider it but Bradford and Erie aren't exactly Bond Street. But never mind. I love PA best for its scenery.

This is the Kinzua reservoir - something I've never visited but should have. It has a massive dam and the car park has some interesting variations on the bear poster theme. "Be safe while you recreate" - the mind boggles.

It may be too small to see the advice, so here's some of it:  If the bear approaches you: 1) Do not run! 2) Talk to the bear in a calm voice  3) Back away slowly.   (Good luck with that)
If the bear attacks (extremely rare): 1) Fight back  2) Playing dead is used only with grizzly bears.
OK, so far as I know, there are no grizzly bears in Pennsylvania.
 There's also the following salutary instruction:

Speaking of wood, the forests of Pennsylvania in the autumn are one of the most beautiful sights in the world. But this time, it turned all foggy on us. We went through the lovely, once prosperous old towns of Warren and Oil City (with its "Petroleum Street), where, incredibly, we found last year's cafe again, quite by chance. Some ladies having coffee spotted sister-in-law's Vermont number plates and rushed over to us, "Welcome to Pennsylvania!"
  Further along to Pittsburgh

the old steel city that used to feel sorry for itself but is now doing well again as a business centre. Pittsburgh stands at the meeting of three big rivers, the Allegheny, the Monongahela and the Ohio.
I'd been there a few times and remembered this bridge.

Not much time to spend there this trip but we visited the  St Anthony Chapel in Troy Hill, the old German Quarter. The chapel is modest-looking from the outside but houses over 5,000 saints' relics, including St Anthony's tooth, the largest collection on public view outside the Vatican. Unfortunately we couldn't take photographs but take my word for it - it's stupendous. You can look at the website.
 I had to be content with taking a pic of the cute statue of Pope St John Paul ll in the gift shop.

 I wanted to take him home!

To be continued........