Day 1 Pittsburgh to West Newton 34 miles - 34 miles total

Today, Turner and I were up early and ready for our neighbor, Jim to ride us to the 2nd Ave Parking lot to begin our ride. We packed up our bikes and began the adventure.
We rode down the trail and then across the Hot Metal Bridge.

The first stop was the REI store on the South Side to pick up a spare tube for Turner's bike. We then headed east towards McKeesport. the ride was going along smoothly until we reached Duquesne and then it started to rain. We came to a small tunnel and decided to wait the rain out. As we were waiting a rider came from the opposite direction and we started to chat. Turns out that he was a McKeesport native in town for his 50th class reunion. He grew up on Versailles Ave near Union street not to far from my house on Pirl St.
The rain stopped and we started out again. Crossed the bridge over the Mon river and into McKeesport. I described all of the mills that used to be in the valley and pointed out some of the places of my youth. The bike trail goes through my old paper route along the Yough river and then it goes past 9th and Market where I worked for the phone company.
 We rode across the Yough river on the 15th street bridge and then up the river past Dead Man's hollow where I used to hike and camp with my Boy Scout troop. I told Turner about the old abandoned house we used to explore. He said that was something that he would like to do.
We came to Little Boston and stopped to have lunch. We sat outside and had some very good hamburgers. We talked to a couple who was also having lunch. They told us about some places to eat in West Newton.
We finished our lunch and started down the trail to West Newton. We hadn't gone very far before it started raining again.

We stopped at a picnic shelter to wait it out. After 15 minutes or so the rain stopped and we started out again. We stopped at the Dravo cemetery to look at the tombstones. We discovered that a veteran of the War of 1812 and 9 veterans of the Civil War are buried there. The last burial was in 1942.
We continued on for 5 more miles and stopped in Sutersville for some ice cream.  We passed a white water fall and then a red water fall.

Turner learned that they were caused by drainage from old mines. It was only 6 more miles and we reached our destination in West Newton. We were staying at the Bright Morning B&B hosted by Marylou and Rob. There are a total of four houses that they have converted in B&Bs. I remember how the old dilapidated houses were one by one refurbished but I had never stopped.
Marylou gave us a recommendation for dinner, Gary's Chuck Wagon in downtown West Newton. I had the ham and Turner had the grilled pork chops, very good.
We went back to the B&B and went to bed!