Miko and Me: The Steel City

I'm heading to the Hudson River Valley. Where I want to go is only two hours north of New York City so I figured that I should, dare I say, make reservations. We all know what a commitment phobe I am so it was tough. I just didn't want to have all those hordes of New Yorkers wrecking my camping plans. Turns out that the campground I had picked was unavailable for several days after I needed it so I had to make some filler plans. I looked at a map and saw that Pittsburgh was only an inch or so away. So, off to Pittsburgh I go.

I found this campground called Mountain Top RV Park. It was actually on top of a mountain - go figure. My campsite was right on the edge, overlooking a valley. Very very nice. The park also has live bluegrass music on Saturdays. I was going to miss that, but I am definitely putting this campground on places to return to. As I said, the view was wonderful and I faced west so I could watch for sunsets.

My daytime view

My sunset view

I did venture off the Mountain Top into Pittsburgh. I'm now driving a ¾ ton pickup and this thing is a monster. Pittsburgh is an old town with many narrow streets, some even with cobblestones. It was a challenge driving around. I liked Pittsburgh, it had a nice vibe. But then, I was driving around perhaps the more upscale parts of Pittsburgh.

I had heard about Randyland, a place on the north side of town. Randy Gilson bought Randyland on a credit card in 1995. Every day after waiting tables, he came home to paint and bring happiness to his neighborhood. He even started painting his neighbors' houses. Randyland had such a nice vibe – outsider art at it's best.

Randy's House

And here is Randy. He had various cardboard cutouts of himself in different poses scattered around

Randy's neighbor's house

There was even a huge sandpit that kids could play in

No visit to Pittsburgh is complete without going to see the Andy Warhol Museum. As a child of the sixties, Andy was a household name to me. Everybody knew Andy Warhol. I have to admit, I was/am not much of a fan of his art. Again, my definition of art is 'if I can do it, it ain't art'. While I may not have the technical expertise to paint a soup can, at least I could visualize it. Of course, Andy's genius was that he not only visualized it, he put it out there for everybody to see. He was not only into the painting, but he also worked on film and graphic design. One interesting note is that he designed the cover for the Rolling Stones 'Sticky Fingers' album, the one with the jeans with the working zipper. That was a very cool album cover, if I do say so myself.