Fun Sights & Tasty Treats

 

In this post, I'll share some fun sights and tasty treats along the way on our recent Road Trip.  Bet you recognize the fellow sitting beside me on the bench above.  Fred Rogers was one of the nicest guys, even if he was a bit stiff in this picture.  We stopped in Latrobe, PA, his hometown and I was reminded of the simple, yet wonderful TV shows Mr. Rogers produced.  He was the epitome of a Good Neighbor.

I love this beautiful sunflower against a partly cloudy blue sky.  It was growing in a plot of sunflowers at our first rest stop in Pennsylvania.  What a nice welcome to that lovely state!

Yum!!  And yes, it tasted just as good as it looks.  We told our server we were going to share a banana split and she said she made this one extra large for us to share.  Double Yum!!  This place is called Valley Dairy Restaurant in Latrobe, PA.  The town is known for the creation of the banana split back in 1904, by a young man named David Evans Stickler, an apprentice pharmacist in Latrobe.

Speaking of food - this is one of the most unique sandwiches you'll see.  It's not very pretty, but it is quite tasty and filling.  It consists of thickly sliced (delicious) homemade white bread, meat of your choice, tomato, homemade cole slaw (more like sauerkraut) and French fries.  It's quite a hefty sandwich and takes some maneuvering to get it into your mouth, but it's very good, and - yes, I ate the whole thing!!  My nephew Alex recommended Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh as a local must-try and I'm so glad we did.  The original sandwich was created in 1933 for truck drivers and steel workers so that they could eat their entire meal - meat, potatoes and bread - with one hand.  This stop was both fun and tasty!

I can't end the Yum section without sharing this hulking piece of berry pie with a hefty scoop of ice cream I had at Lyn-way Restaurant in Ashland, Ohio.  This was much larger than expected, but once again -- I ate the whole thing (:  It reminds me of the verse in Psalm 34:8, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!"  I felt very blessed indeed with that dessert!

Well, this is something you don't see everyday!  A deer with a full rack of antlers casually leans on the bridge over the Scioto River in Columbus, Ohio. Back in 2015, artist Terry Allen fashioned three bronze deer to enhance the Scioto Mile along the waterfront (we only saw this one).  Scioto means "hairy deer" in a Native American language.  This big guy is lucky - he gets to enjoy this wonderful view 24/7.

Here I am sitting on yet another bench with a well-known character -- at least to Cincinnati Reds Baseball fans.  Redlegs, who sports bulging eyes and a walrus mustache, made his debut as mascot in 1953.  It's quite impressive the way Redlegs is able to hold a pose for a very, very long time.

I saw this sign on a building in Lexington, Kentucky.  If you were thinking about getting a tattoo, how likely would you be to choose a place named, "Poisoned Pen?"  It's as if they're advertising infection, or worse if you pop into our shop for the needle.  My advice - run, run as fast as you can!

Here we have a giant - and I mean GIANT gavel on display outside the Supreme Court building in Columbus, Ohio.  I really should have crossed over the barrier to stand beside the thing to give it  perspective, but it was one of the rare times I wimped out on stretching the rules for a photo opt.  This 31 feet long, 17,000 pound stainless steel work is considered the largest judicial gavel in the world.  It reminds me of the verse in Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, that you be not judged."  

I guess I might include this in the "Yum" category - not for me, but for this grey squirrel who seemed to carry supper for her entire family in her mouth.  Another new sight for me - in Beckley, West Virginia.

And finally, in the charming town of Lewisburg, West Virginia, I spotted this sign in a shop window.  It makes me think of the verse in Isaiah that I especially like where the Lord says He will, "give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified," 61:3.