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The following morning we pushed on, through Forest County, following the Allegheny River, beyond the little community of Tionesta to an even smaller community which boasts its own golf course.
It's a mountain course and the architectural options were limited when they built it, but they were strong on imagination and knew how to turn a trick. You'll never have more fun with your clothes on and the scenery would impoverish adjectives.
It's known as Hunter's Station Golf Club and from one tee at the highest point most of Pennsylvania appeared at our feet with the Allegheny River way down below, winding through the forest until it disappeared on the horizon. Breathtaking. And the golf club has just opened a lodge near the clubhouse. A couple of days here would have your batteries re-charged to the point of popping!
It was all most distracting but we persevered, eventually arriving in Pittsburgh to find even more treats waiting.
THE two major cities of Pennsylvania offer a contrast that is beguiling in its intensity. While Philadelphia thrives on its history, Pittsburgh is a city that has virtually reinvented itself, with unsurpassed success. It's a model city that should be required visiting for some politicians I could name....
Once the engine room of America, the well that was the source of a third of the world's steel and untold wealth, it was for decades a smog-ridden industrial cess pit where the rivers ran green sludge and the quality of life was as subterranean as the coal mines that fuelled its heart beat. It represented the worst of mankind's push towards economic growth with no thought for the morrow. It was a sad city, "the blackest place I ever saw," said Anthony Trollope, the 19th century English writer.
It stayed that way for a century or more until a forward-looking mayor saw the error of the city's ways and set about reversing the process. He started with a campaign for cleaner air and the redevelopment of the riverside slum areas. Shown the way ahead, the community and big business responded and the campaign widened to include all aspects of city life.
Fifty years later the old ways are but a part of history; the city is a high tech haven for dozens of the world's major companies, its three world class hospitals are a mecca of medical research, the housing stock has been replaced, anglers are pulling bass out of the three rivers that surround the city. And the air is pristine.
The bustling down-town area is a model of old and new architecture, of heritage and innovation, its dramatic skyline a source of wonderment to the first time visitor. The city, now renowned for its shops, its restaurants and its new airport, was recently voted one of the top five US cities for family life. Its commercial area is vibrant, its convention facilities the equal of any, its hotels enjoy the occupation levels of many resorts.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is but one string to the city's cultural bow. Theatre is many-layered in Pittsburgh; opera and ballet continue to burgeon; art galleries and museums proliferate and offer a permanent home to works that are the envy of the world.
In short, it has become The Renaissance City. As a New Yorker columnist noted: "If Pittsburgh were situated somewhere deep in the heart of Europe tourists would eagerly journey hundreds of miles out of their way to visit it."
Tourism, indeed, has become an ace up the city's sleeve, so much does it have to offer the visitor. Set on an island surrounded by three rivers, it's a visual delight, particularly at night when viewed from the high ground reached by a trio of funicular railways.
All this and golf too! It's a model city in every sense.
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