Heading West

On Tuesday, we left central PA to begin the long journey back West. We decided to go by way of Maryland. Although this might sound a little strange, it really made a lot of sense. We jumped on I70 in Hagerstown, then I68 in Hancock. Driving across the northern edge of Maryland we had the benefit of nice interstates and the beauty of gorgeous rolling hills. I know a lot of RVers say they would rather take the back roads, but I say you see the same scenery on the interstates without the narrow twisty roads. And after the roads that Ron has driven in WV and PA, I think he appreciates the highways too.

Just west of Hancock, I68 goes through the Sideling Hill Road Cut. About 10 million tons of rock were cut out of Sideling Hill, crushed, and used to make the road bed leading to the cut. The 340 foot vertical cut reveals a 350 million year old section of rock which was folded by a massive compression of the Earth's crust 245 million years ago. What we found interesting was how the fold seems upside down. It even rates its own visitor center.


We decided to stay at a Corps of Engineers campground at Lake Youghiogheny which straddles the PA/MD line. This involved some of those narrow, steep, twisty roads, but Ron was game. It was very nice once we made it and conveniently located near Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater which I wanted to tour. Unfortunately the house is closed on Wednesday so we had to wait a day, but never fear, we can always find something to do.

Wow! We discovered we were very close to the Great Allegheny Passage - a 150 mile system of biking/hiking trails that will connect Cumberland, MD and Pittsburgh, PA when completed. We thought, "We'll bike some of it!"

Well, Wednesday turned out to be a complete washout with more periods of rain than not. We did run over to Ohiopyle State Park where we saw the trail that runs along the Youghiogheny River.

I took this of the river between rain showers.


Ron did find the park's 40 foot waterfall called Cucumber Falls (well, at least it's pronounceable.)


Finally Thursday dawned cloudy, but rain-free, and we took off for our 1:00 tour of Fallingwater. (You do have to make reservations or wait for openings. The wait time when we arrived was an hour.) Fallingwater, architect Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous work, was built in 1935 for Pittsburgh department store owner Edgar J. Kaufmann. Wright designed the house to blend in with nature. Instead of facing the waterfall, the house actually rises above it. Wright included walls of windows to blur the edge between indoors and out and cantilevered decks out from the stone building.

Here our tour group catches our first sight of the house.

Pictures are not allowed inside (well, unless you pay more,) so I have none. The house surprised me with its modest size and built-in furniture, which is original. Of course, all those flying decks make it seem much larger. I won't go on and on, but it really was something to see and our guide was very informed. I highly recommend seeing this unique structure, even at $18 a person.

After the tour, we were allowed to take pictures of the outside. Here you can see the stairs that lead down to the stream. Although the stream is shallow, I could see cooling off in it on a hot summer day. The water is a constant 55 degrees and helps cool the house.


There's a trail that leads to the spot where everybody takes a picture, or as Diana says, the tripod spot. I didn't have a tripod (or a great camera), so this is what I got.