We crossed over the Rainbow International Bridge from the town of Niagara Falls in Canada to the town of Niagara Falls in the United States. Such a good name, it got used twice. We passed straight through the big city of Buffalo, the second largest in the state of New York, and set a south-west course. We opted for more scenic country roads and were struck by the enormous size of peoples’ plots of land, and number of American flags on display, the size of peoples’ cars, and the amount of agriculture in western New York State. We stumbled onto a nice rest stop between a forest and some cornfields.
We then crossed over into Pennsylvania, moving from the fourth into the fifth most populous US state (20mn and 13mn, respectively). The name Pennsylvania means “Penn’s Woods” in latin (as my dad would know) and was granted to William Penn by the English King in the 1680s as payment for a debt owed to Penn’s father. This became one of the largest land grants to an individual in history. One of Penn’s key legacies is advocating for religious freedom. As a Quaker himself, perhaps he knew a thing or two about discrimination by religion. The concept seemed to take hold, and today Pennsylvania scores top marks for freedom of religion. This may explain the large presence of those interesting people driving horse-drawn carriages around – the Amish. Like being out on safari, Ella and I were excitedly spotting Amish people left and right. It’s not difficult, they don’t travel very fast. Also, some of the men have the most biblical beards. Known to be excellent craftspeople and hard workers, they sell high quality hand-made produce and goods and are apparently frequently employed for housing improvements. One has to admire the sacrifices these people make – to forgo electricity and modern conveniences in the name of faith seems extraordinary to me. We left them in the dust and continued south.
Pennsylvania is nicknamed the Keystone State. A keystone is that final stone placed at the apex of an arch that is core to the structure’s integrity. Pennsylvania may have been viewed as a sort of keystone in the founding of the United States, but this all happened on the other side of the state. The concept, however, lends itself to understanding another interesting aspect of the state – it’s position at the centre of American politics. Pennsylvania is one of the largest swing states, meaning that when it comes to Presidential election season, where Pennsylvania goes, so goes the nation. In the preceding 20 years the state had been leaning left, but in 2016, to many people’s surprise, Trump won the state by a razor-thin margin. Politically, the Democrats have traditionally held strong positions in the big cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, while the Republicans have held the rest. Our destination, the tiny town of Warren (population 9,200), is firmly in the camp of “the rest”. We spotted plenty of pro-Trump signs in people’s front yards, some may have been proudly displayed for the last two years!
The town was small, quaint, and quite pretty, with a series of bridges over the Allegheny River that runs alongside its centre. We had a good time simply wandering around, but did notice the lack of activity on the streets. The town’s population has been in slow decline for many years, after peaking in the 1930s. The town is 98.5% white.
The town’s biggest tourist draw-card is its position adjacent to the Allegheny National Forest. We managed to fit in a hike and stops at various viewing points in this enormous wooded area. The whole area was extensively logged during the late 1800s, but after establishing it as a National Forest in the 1920s, the area recovered quickly.
We had some lunch in the very small town of Kane (population 3,700), on the edge of the Allegheny National Forest. The town has one traffic light, a famous hot dog diner called Texas Hot Lunch (?), and a very local newspaper called the Kane Republican. The paper is quite a read – for a taste, check out www.kanerepublican.com. It’s focused on anything Kane-related. There was an obituary of what seems to be a fairly ordinary citizen, whose only link is that she was born in Kane. The local little league team winning their first game of the season was at the top of the sports page! Otherwise it largely sticks to regional or Pennsylvanian news, with only the sports section publishing national news. In general, it seemed pretty well written.
Back in Warren, we managed to find a local hangout called the Draft House and opted for a Pennsylvanian beer, Yuengling, the flagship product of the oldest operating brewing company in the country. The next day we headed south, with our sights set on the mighty Steel City of Pittsburgh.
