Long but productive day



July 22 – I got up at 8 planning to leave at 9.  Bill wasn’t interested in the

Art at the VC

places I wanted to visit today and it would be all walking and stairs and he’s not able to do that so I did the first half of the day by myself.  I unloaded and assembled his scooter so he could go over to the pool or just drive around and check out the campground.  I left his breakfast partially ready.  He got up as I was ready to go and detained me for a few minutes.  Then I was off to Uniontown to Staples.  I had to go there to send the baseball tickets via UPS. 

 

I missed my exit and went to the next one and it worked out OK.  I had a bit of a wait and I was a little concerned I’d be late at Kentuck 

 

Best I could do to get the entire front of the house in

Knob for my 10:30 tour.  Uniontown is in the opposite direction and I wasn’t sure where was as it’s in the woods back in off any main roads.  I arrived, parked and checked in at the visitor center and picked up my ticket and still had time to make a trip to the bathroom at the parking lot. 

Kentuck Knob was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Hagan family who owned the Hagan Ice Cream Company in Uniontown.  They had become friends with the Kauffmans who owned

Notice the hex lights, it's from the hex
openings in the overhang

Fallingwater which was designed by Wright some years earlier.  They came to love Wright’s style of design and commissioned him to build their home about 10 miles outside of Uniontown.  It’s small by most standards but for a 1954 home it has 3 bathrooms, one for each bedroom.  The kitchen is hexagonal with natural lighting from the hex skylight.  Wright generally designs the furniture also for the

These are windows in the shapes of all of the
sections of the house in a repeat pattern

homes and he makes a lot of it built in so it cannot be moved and rearranged.  He was quite pointed with his opinions and generally did not accept requests for changes to his ideas and designs.   It’s a beautiful house in a beautiful setting. The Hagans had to move and sell the house for health reasons and sold it to Lord Peter Palumbo of London who has added tons of collectible art and has opened the house to the public after purchasing another house in the area.  http://kentuckknob.com/ 

My first view of Fallingwater -the terraces are over
the waterfall

After my tour I checked out the gift shop and got directions to Fallingwater, only about 15 minutes away.  On my way I stopped in the tiny town of Ohiopyle and got a sandwich to go for my lunch.  The town is packed this time of year as it’s on a river known for canoeing and kayaking.  There was also road work going on so I was delayed at 2 sections of the road.  Once I arrived I picked up my ticket at the entrance gate and got parked with no problem.  I enjoyed my overpriced sandwich with

My final view - there's still mist from the rain

a bottle of water and headed to the Visitor Complex.  It’s hexagonal with a kiosk in the center to check in for your tour.  I was offered to go on an earlier tour so I took it.  The Hex has a museum shop, bathroom, conference room, entry walkway, walkway to the house and a café and each side of the hex. 

Each tour has only 13 people and there are lots of stairs and small spaces.  But nothing can tell how unique and well planned Fallingwater is.  Nothing compares to standing across from the waterfall and hearing and seeing the magnificence of it all.  Wright was an extremist on tying nature to his designs and this house brings nature in at every turn.  I’ve wanted to visit here for years and it was exciting to finally see it.  Unfortunately it started raining halfway though so we didn’t spend as much time on the terraces as I’d like.  It was just about cleared by the time we finished and I went for my photo of the falls www.fallingwater.org. 

Friendship HIll

Time to make a quick stop in the museum shop and then home to pick up Bill.  He wanted to go by Ft. Necessity and get a magnet for his collection.  Even though I got finished sooner than expected, there wasn’t time to tour the new visitor center.  We went to the fort several years ago.  From there we headed out to Friendship Hill.  Bill said we’d never been there and it was quite a drive.  Bill didn’t want to take the scooter, but once we arrived in the parking lot he rethought that!  You had to go up a long cascading walkway to the top of the hill.  Then he said, “oh, we’ve been here before”.  So I went up and talked with the ranger and  a re-enactor and watched the 2 short movies.  Honestly I did not remember one thing about the place.  It was the home of Albert Galletin, who was Secretary of State for President Jefferson and stayed in office for 13 years.  He is the one who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase and cut the country’s budget deficit in half.  He was a very interesting man.  I got Bill a magnet and also found out with his handicapped hanger we could have driven up, but I wasn’t walking back down since it was almost closing time.

Then we made the long drive back to Uniontown and Bill found us an excellent restaurant for dinner, Caporella’s Italian.  We parked and he hobbled up the stairs and halfway down the “train station” building to go in and they said they were all booked.  Looking at the crowd we could tell it was a popular place.  It wasn’t but 6:00 so we didn’t expect it to be so busy already.  The hostess checked with a waiter about an empty table that was reserved in 45 minutes and we said we could eat in 45 minutes so he seated us.  Wow, was it delicious with top notch service.  Bill had classic spaghetti with giant meatballs and I had a special of shrimp and crab ravioli.  He had leftovers, I did not!  Then I didn’t have as much bread before as he did.

We had passed an Aldi’s on the way in so stopped there for 1 bag of necessities and then went through the McDonald’s drive thru for the tiny .49 ice cream cone.  Kerry and Jude called and we facetimed with them while he walked in water puddles and we ate ice cream.  Then it was back to the RV to map out tomorrow.