Road Tripping in Pennsylvania – Visiting the Kinzua Viaduct

Pulling off route 144, I wheeled into the parking lot for what was signed as a scenic view. I had to jockey to find a parking space. Can you believe the crowd?

After parking I marched up the grassy knoll and had a look around. Rolling green as far as I could see.

While standing there, I debated on whether I should just keep riding for the sake of riding or if I should go see a couple of things. You know, since I was in the neighborhood.

Seeing stuff won.

kinzua bridge state park

My first order of business was to head to the Kinzua Viaduct since it was less than 100 miles away. It has been on my list of things to see for a few years now. It would have been silly to skate by. So off I went…

Once the longest railroad structure, the bridge was partly collapsed by a tornado in 2003.

After parking my bike, I walked to the end of the viaduct to get a look at the downed towers.  There at the end was a bench on which two women sat.

With them only about 8 feet away, I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation as I snapped photos. In their not-so-hushed-but-not-really-meant-for-me-to-hear tones I heard one of them say “don’t drop the camera through the railllllinnnng,” obviously watching what I was doing. I must have that camera-slayer look about me.

When I turned around to look through the plexiglass viewing window in the floor between me and the bench, one of the women looked at me and said, “you must be freezing! It’s a cold day to be on the bike.”

Since it was about 70 degrees and I was wearing my Klim jacket and pants, I was a little caught off guard by the question. Do I need to adjust my expectations? Because this is a whole new genre of motorcycle seasonal questioning. I’m sure I sounded like a snarky bitch when I blurted out, “Uh, not even a little bit.” No doubt it had the stink of what the hell are you talking about all over it.

Maybe she was just being friendly. And had poor circulation.

As I travel around I’ve come to realize that many people who take selfies at a place – maybe a landmark, park, a natural wonder – aren’t getting the whole picture. You can see just by the way that they’re holding the camera that whatever they’re selfie-ing at, is being missed. Oh, look – it’s your face again… with something… I can’t quite make out… in the background. There was a bit of that going on up there on the viaduct.

Traveling is really an incredible education in humanity. Keep your eyes, ears and heart open out there.

 

Other Posts from this Road Trip

Fuzzygalore

Rachael is the whimsical writer behind the 20+ year old Girlie Motorcycle Blog. As a freelance blogger, she is on a mission to inspire laughter, self-examination, curiosity, and human connection. Girlie Motorcycle Blog can be found on several Best Motorcycle Blog lists.

You may also like...

3 Responses

  1. RichardM says:

    Wow! I had never heard of that before. That is huge. I’m glad seeing stuff (and sharing) won out…

  2. Ry Austin says:

    Ha-haa! “…that camera-slayer look…”

    Priceless.

  3. Zoe says:

    What a gorgeous old structure. Definitely worth those 100 miles.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.