Pennsylvania - Day 25 - Altoona

Prince Gallitzen State Park, near Altoona

Wednesday, 25 April 2018

I’ve been puzzling about why the state would name a park after royalty, so I finally looked him up. Prince Gallitzen was actually a Russian prince who came to the US in the 1790s and never left. To the horror of his family he became a priest, was assigned to the area south of where Harrisburg is now, and never left there either. He became known as the Apostle of the Alleghenies, and lately there’s work being done on making him a saint. So he does belong here.

This park is really big, one of the biggest in the state. It’s got 400 camping sites, and I think I’m the only one here besides the campground host in the next loop. Very cozy.

At the turning into the state park is a village named Frugality, and the name is descriptive. A low-income sort of place, as far as I could tell. I’m a little surprised they don’t change the name - maybe they could change their prosperity level along with it.

This morning, I really think I saw skunk cabbage growing by a stream. I haven’t seen that since I left Washington. It wasn’t blooming yet, which is why I wasn’t sure that’s what it was.

And I’m pretty sure what I’ve been seeing lately are ravens. I’m sure some crows and grackles, too, but ravens are substantially bigger and the bird book says that’s might be what I’ve seen soaring, rather than the vultures I thought they were, at least some of the time. I didn’t know they soared.

In Altoona, I went first to the Railroaders Memorial Museum. Because I can’t get a wi-fi signal in the campground, I was a little concerned it might not be open but figured no problem, it’s not a Monday or Tuesday so it should be open. Turns out it’s only open on weekends. Figures.

Railroaders Memorial Museum

But it being about trains, there was quite a bit outside with informative signs describing the history of the site and the use of the various railroad cars they had parked around the area.

The Altoona Works was established in 1850, along with the town itself, and by 1925 had the largest concentration of railroad services in the country. Between 1866 and 1946, they built 6,873 locomotives here and many thousands of freight and passenger cars. In the 20 years between 1921 and 1940 alone they built 16,415 freight cars – and that was before WWII when they really started cranking.

The dining cars baked bread and rolls and pies from scratch on the cars each day. Just in 1941 they served 3.9 million meals, and 5 times that many during the war. I guess the comparatively small population back then balances with far more people using the railroads than they do now. I know my mom took the train from Rhode Island to Jacksonville to join my dad when he was stationed there during the war, and then she took the train to Texas after the war was over.

I saw a private car that was built in 1917 for Charles Schwab who, sad to say, died penniless in 1939. Fancy car, though.

I wanted to see a little of Altoona in memory of George Burns. One of his books is subtitled “They Still Love Me In Altoona,” and I wanted to see where that is. I drove around the old section a bit and saw a theater where he might have appeared, back in his vaudeville days. I think that because the theater was built in the 1920s, which seems about the right time for him to have appeared in it.

Altoona has a Greek Orthodox church. Trying to keep up with the big cities, I guess.

Later I drove out to Horseshoe Curve - “World Famous” according to their sign. The day was getting on and I decided not to take the tour, but the nice woman at the counter explained to me that the line I could see in the mountainside above us is where the train tracks are. They’re still in use. This section is in the exact shape of a horseshoe because it’s going around a mountainside that shape. Its significance is that it was built between 1850 and 1854 and was part of the first train tracks that allowed people to cross the mountains by train. They can’t just build train tracks like they do roads (with harrowing grades up and down) because the trains can’t handle it. Instead, they built a very gradual ascent that followed the curve of the mountains as it went up, I guess like s-curves do for cars.

I cribbed this photo, not being able to get this angle of Horseshoe Curve

I saw a sign outside a small town that said, "We have many children but none to spare so please drive carefully."  So I did.

I took a shortcut on the way back to the campground - got lost but a jogger helped me get found again - and generally got a good view of this area. Full of very small villages and very small towns built on the side of whatever mountain is here. I know the ranger said we’re in hills in a plateau, but just south of here is a mountain that has a 5% grade down the other side that runs for 6 miles – meaning it’s no little hill. My ears popped going down.

I can’t believe it. The whole 400 camping spots in this park and somebody is pulling into the site 4 away from mine. One of the behemoths that looks like a rock band would be traveling in it, towing a car besides. I sure wouldn’t have wanted to drive that outfit on the roads I’ve been on getting here.