On our way to Cleveland, OH

After dropping off Lincoln at the pet hotel this morning, we left on our trip to Cleveland. We drove West on I-76 for several hours, then got on the back roads for about another hour. The whole drive was just beautiful, especially when we got into the mountains. Fall is about a week or 2 further along than where we are, and the trees on the hills and around the farm fields are just beautiful – it looks like an impressionist painting. No matter how many times I see them, it is still hard to believe that trees and hillsides can get those colors.

We stopped at an overlook approaching 3,000 feet in elevation and drove through lots of small towns and countryside. We came upon a couple of wind farms. Pennsylvania (and New Jersey) are leaders in the country when it comes to alternative energy. I absolutely love to see these wind turbines. They are simply amazing, from an engineering standpoint (they are freakin’ huge!), and aesthetically – they are both stately and graceful. Studies have shown that wherever they are put up, they become tourist draws.

This is one still being built. Look how big it is right behind those huge trucks/cranes!

Here is the base of one of the blades waiting to be assembled, with Sarah for scale.

Here's Sarah for scale again under the widest part of the blade. It's hard to fathom how big these things really are.

Well, we left a day early for my meetings in Cleveland partly because I have off tomorrow for Columbus Day, and so that we could get to a couple of National Monuments, which I’ll save for the next post.

We’re staying the night in Johnstown, PA in a motel. I just realized that we're only a few miles East of Latrobe, Pa, where my Unlcle and cousins used to live years ago. I was there a long time ago.