On to Dale's World

Next stop on the weekend tour (okay, I know it is almost the weekend already. I have been very busy. Extremely busy for a matter of fact. Remember, my personal manta? Work super hard so you can play even harder.) was to Dale "Ace" Goldberg. Ace invited us to camp in his back yard so it would be easier to go into the city and have a full day at Kennywood Amusement Park.

The welcome was spectacular. I just followed the sign. At the Little Bash, we had a trailer restoration demo. You might recall me saying that I was disgusted by my rusty bumper. It has been on my list for two full years.

Ace demonstrated to me just how well his sand blaster could take care of it...

It amazes me how well 40 minutes of prep to do 4 minutes of work can get such great results.

We primed the bumper up with some silver Eastwood product. It looks very good now, all ready to paint with FTW grey. I wish we had had enough time to take the tanks and break away system off to do the front tongue also. Maybe next visit.

Ace had his shiny Caravel parked in the yard too. He said he was going to show solidarity, and camp out too, but not sure what happened to him.

The hospitality that his entire family showed us was so wonderful. We had smoked wings and smoked pork roast with corn from the local farmer. Very nice meal it was...

The follow-up to an excellent dinner was an equally awesome bonfire.

Something happened during the night. I don't know exactly when, but my camera broke. I carry it around all the time. It is the size of a pack of cigarettes, so it travels well. Somehow the LCD screen got cracked. I was literally shooting blind. A true point and shoot technique was adopted. I could not set my ISO, change the lens profile, compose the frame, nothing. Just point and shoot and hope the last setting was the right one.

Being a guest at Dale's World comes with many tours. The first tour stop was downtown Pittsburgh.

Ace loves to show you around his city. He talks nonstop about every location you pass. Lisa told him he was boring me, but honesty I was loving every single second of it. I saw where he did his paper route, where he and Lisa lived as kids, where Lisa lived after that. To most it would seem odd, but I really liked having him share his world with me.

We did a tour of downtown Pittsburgh...

This city used to be seriously industrial. It is in the process of reinventing itself.

The strip district is a fine example of how a former use can be reinvented. In the old days this is where the rail cars were loaded into trucks to be sent out all over the place.

Lots of old brick warehouses. Lots of brick buildings in general in Pittsburgh.

The strip district is bustling with stores of all kinds. Their products spill out onto the street, which makes for a great stroll.

You see just about everything for sale. Awesome cakes and buns here..

Hot dog, anyone? Nothing catches my eye like shiny aluminum. Honestly, the hot dogs looked awesome. It was too early to have one, but maybe next time.

What is growing out of my head? I have developed a conjoined Halle.

Ace had a mission, though. He was headed to his favorite store...

He was heading to the Greek store. "You can't make the good stuffed grape leaves without this. It is the secret stuff you need".

Oh, the olives...

and smoked fish...

A very cool store, for sure. We do have a store just like this in Baltimore, but this one was in Pittsburgh and it was on Dale's tour. That is why it gets five stars from me.

Onward ho!! Hey, that is my bank...

This is where the weekend gets cloudy. Well, actually it was crystal clear, but my camera took a turn for the worse. It actually went into video mode. I had no idea how it did this. I have 168 two second video clips. Until I can figure out how to extract one frame from a bunch of 2 second video clips, you will just have to take my word that we had a great time at Kennywood. Lisa noticed that they had a VIP roller coaster pass. For $15 you got to cut the entire line and ride each of the 6 roller coasters. We had an appointed time to be there, but we had to only wait for the next car to arrive. What a deal that was. One of the coasters had people waiting for over an hour to go for a one and a half minute thrill ride. Lisa scored big time with that deal. I will always look for a VIP pass at future amusement parks. Thank you, Lisa!!

I really want to thank the Goldbergs for their hospitality. I was honored to be a part of Dale's World for the weekend. Friend, I will honestly take you up on the invitation to come again. Hopefully next time, you will actually camp out.