Pittsburgh, Bedford and In Between
November 9-10, 2012
Our dad told us about Gravity Hill years ago and we’d been
meaning to go ever since but it’s kind of out in the middle of Pennsylvania and
we never quite managed to make it there.
But, pieced together with a band we LOVE and a few other attractions
along the way and we had the makings of an excellent mini weekend excursion.
Di, Meg and I met at Meg’s house and we packed up her
luxurious Lincoln ‘Pearl’ for the ride out to Pittsburgh. We decided to follow Route 30 from Ohio,
through West Virginia and into Pennsylvania.
We stopped in Lisbon, Ohio at the Steel Trolley Diner (STD) for a dinner
of gourmet hot dogs with toppings like bleu cheese, horseradish and jalapeños
or peanut butter, bacon and banana jam.
It was a great meal and by the time we left we were pretty giggly from
the way the restaurant capitalized on their initials and various other
conversations. At one point Di described
the short few minutes we spent driving through West Virginia as ‘In and out-
just the tip!’ The rest of our drive
into Pennsylvania was full of music and chatter.
We were pretty impressed with our room at the Holiday Inn
Express Pittsburgh- Southside Hotel. The
décor had been recently updated and the hotel staff was friendly and fun. We called for a car from Classy Cab and they
sent the chillest taxi driver in existence- an awesome guy named Vinnie. This dude was so low key. He chatted with us about basketball, growing
up in Pittsburgh and the music we were going out to see. When he dropped us off he gave us his number
and said to call him if we needed a ride home.
Later that night I called him up, said ‘hey Vinnie-it’s Heather- can you
come get us?’ and he was like ‘Yeah, I’ll be there in 10!’ Vinnie is so
awesome!
The Stagecoach Robbery at the Thunderbird Café in the Lawrenceville
area of Pittsburgh was crazy! From the
moment the band started playing the crowd was in a groove and dancing. We boogied with so many people that night. The energy was unbeatable- there was just the
coolest vibe. The way the Thunderbird is
set up on three levels with the stage on the center tier and bars on the upper
and lower floors make it quite a nice place to have a well-made drink and see a
show. 
The drive along Route 30 was quite scenic, passing through small towns and
farmland along the way- we happened to see a herd of bison running along the
hillside. It was noteworthy. But it was
nothing compared to Gravity Hill! Gravity Hill is a place where, either by
optical illusion or some sort of physics phenomenon, cars roll uphill. We followed the directions provided by the
Bedford County Visitor’s Bureau- Meg drove down a little country road, up to a
spray-painted marker that indicated ‘GH’, put the car in neutral, took her foot
off the break and WE STARTED ROLLING
UPHILL! No joke!
It was pretty wild and we were crazy impressed- we all let out a huge
cheer as we slowly moved backwards up the hill.
A little further down the road is another gravity warp zone- we were
just as enthused the 2nd time. I mean, how often do you get to defy gravity
in a lifetime? The only downside- there
was no cell coverage and we weren’t able to call our dad and tell him that we’d
just performed a marvelous feat!
So, gravity-beating is hard work and we were so hungry. We passed a little place called the Fireside
Tavern and stopped in for scrumptious sandwiches and dessert. The place was empty in the mid-afternoon and
the bar is in a separate area from the dining room so we had a dining
experience with the place to ourselves. 
We really had only one last stop on our agenda- the cute little town of
Bedford, Pennsylvania. Although we’d
been drawn in by the Holiday Open House, we were pleasantly surprised when we
drove past a giant coffee pot. Giant
things that are supposed to be small things are just fun! From there we continued to historic downtown
Bedford to browse the shops a little.
The first place we stopped was Briar Valley Winery to do a little
winetasting before heading into an antique store to make some last minute
purchases before they closed for the night.
*The Stagecoach Robbery pic generously shared by Mr. Brendan Flynn- thanks man!
