Day 6 - Saturday, May 16, 2009

We managed to get a little more sleep after Sarah woke us up with her “tornado” shenanigans, but eventually got up relatively early. We took down camp pretty quickly because it started to rain. We were on our way farther south and now slightly east. Again, since there’s not much to see on the west side of the state, and since we had lots of ground to cover with very little trip time left, we went against our rules and headed sought on the interstate. That also allowed us to avoid Pittsburgh.

Southeast of Pittsburgh we got off onto US 40, headed southeast towards Friendship Hill National Historic Site. Despite the big name, this is a small, 2 lane road in most places with homes and businesses right along side of it. Immediately, we started driving past what appeared to be a community yard sale. But, that yard sale just kept going, and going, and going. We drove for 20 or 30 miles on that road, with nearly continuous yard sales alongside, and food vendors on the sidewalks in towns. We didn’t know what was going on.


About the time Jackson needed a diaper change, we came across historic Seawright’s Tollhouse, so we stopped and went in. It is a very small place, but an old lady there gave us a quick tour. This place was built in 1835 to collect tolls on this road. There were many such buildings on this road.

And then we started to put the pieces together. This road, now US 40, is called the "National Road", or "National Pike"(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Road) - it is also a National Historic Road. It was built in the early 1800 as the 1st federally funded, inter-state road. There were many reasons it was built, but principally the country's early statesmen believed it would make it easier for settlers on the frontier to get their goods to big eastern markets, and easier for them to get stuff from the east, all of which would make them more likely to support the US. The road was begun in 1811 starting at the head of the Potomac River in Cumberland, MD. It was originally intended to extend all the way to St. Louis, MO, but funding ran out by 1839, so it ended at Vandalia, IL. They placed cast iron mile markers every mile, and a few still exist.

At the time, many politicians railed against the road a "wasteful, porkbarrell spending". Sound familiar? On one hand, it is kind of comforting that this is not a new phenomenon. On the other hand, apparently it has been going on for ever, and therefore I see no reason why it will ever end. I guess it illustrates another point - one man's "wasteful spending" is another man's good investment. I doubt you'd find anyone today who could argue this road was a waste of taxpayer money.

Sarah playing with Jackson's hair. Neither Jackson nor I were very happy about this.

Now this giant yard sale made sense as well. They were holding their yearly festival called "Pike Days", celebrating the National Pike. In addition to the fairs and yard sales, people in horses and wagons travel along the road to recreate the old Pike days.

Anyway, we eventually made it to Friendship Hill National Historic Site, home of Albert Gallatin. Never heard of him? Why is his home a National Historic Site? Well, since it is part of the National Park Service, I'll save that for the next blog post.