As they say, a picture is worth eleven or twelve words...soooooo...

here be pictures to prepare you for what you're about to face.

Please refrain from asking how these came to be taken since

I was alone in the car and ostensibly driving at the time.

Thank you!

This is 22 East and you have just passed through the two miles of Murrysville and are now arrived at the Vale of Ultimate Decision.

It is at this light that choice must be considered and made. You may take the long way 'round and continue straight eastwardly or

you may get in the turning lane and make a, well, a turn to the left. You have passed the Sheetz on your right and this is the next light

after that Sheetz and now you come to the Walnut Hollow strip mine, er, mall on your right. That's what that brown sign you can't read in the

picture says. It's really just two short sections of strippish malldom

with a road between. A Hoss' Restaurant is just off to your right if you were a passenger here and wished to look out your side window.

We shall deal a bit later with the more intrepid and interesting choice of turning left, which is what I always do when going home from

here except for today on my way home and needing to go to Walmart. Presuming a certain lack of adventurousness, we shall go straight ahead. Sigh.

A bit further on on 22 you will pass Rick's Sports Bar on your left. As you can see, this is a rather open area with not much along the road for

long sections but dead groundhogs.

Still further along 22 you will pass the tan brick and very large Cornerstone Church with a huge white cross.

And STILL further along you will be coming up a long gradient and will see tiny McDonald's arches on your left.

This is your signal that your passage along the 22 route is nearing completion so please raise your tray tables into

combat positions.

As I had to make the right into Walmart, I am in the turning lane here, which you, of course, will NOT be unless you have some special and

untoward desire TO be. The McDonald's is just to the left at this light. The blue sign at the top on the right reads Hollywood Square as this is

also where the Wynnsong Cineplex is and the road to the right is called Hollywood Blvd. with the sideline to the theaters creatively named Vine. You

go thru this light, presupposing it is green, and there is one more light a long block down from it, which has the distinction of being your

very LAST light on 22 before you exit.

That last light is actually up there but hard to spot at this point. Not far beyond it if you have good eyesight are large green highway signs that will

be of some import to you as it is there you will exit, if you have chosen this feeble route.

Approaching the exit, the smaller sign says 22 East, Blairsville. Ignore that. The 66, Delmont/Greensburg exit goes off to your right

then splits into two sections, the right-hand one heading straight south to Greensburg, where you are surely free to go should you so

desire, and the left curving back under 22 and heading north to mon abode.

Here you have curved to the left and are now almost to the underpass which you will pass under. Both lanes curve north on 66, so you have your

choice. Do not worry that it looks like oncoming traffic will smush you under the bridge as they have the light at the same time you do, for it is

very frequent that they make a dramatic, last-second veering southward and will miss your vehicle by a good couple of inches.

Now you have passed under the underpass and are heading up a long slope into metropolitan Delmont to the first of its two traffic lights.

Having survived the excitement of the first traffic light, you must prepare for that of the second traffic light just ahead at the corner with the red

barn Agway store on the right.

As the helpful yellow sign portends, the four lanes narrow to two, which, of course, means the speed limit rises from 40 to some never-posted

number but which folks seem to take as somewhere between 50 to 60 MPH. This is around two miles north of the underpassed underpass.

Then not far along on the two-laned section, you'll see the big RV dealership on your left. Now, if you look at the blue car heading southwardly and

then the white protuberance of the building behind it, which leads up to a green field and then a line of dark trees with an almost perfectly flat top to

them...THAT is the Felix Forest and, no, it's not at the top of that green field as there are lower trees there and beyond them a valley and the Forest

is more distant than it looks...but that is it! Wheeeee!

Past the RVs and a vets, you start downhill around a curve. Straight up from the top of the car traveling innocently in front of me and not aware

I'm photographing whilst I should be driving (which has to all be Audrey's fault somehow) you can see the distant top of the silo which you must

NOT pass or heaven only knows what will become of you as I surely do not.

This is why I do not describe this as the scenic route as you are now passing a series of auto body and or asphalt places, tho I believe the blue

building may pass itself off as some sort of Italian restaurant. If you know where to look, not far past the car in front of me, you can see the blue

VW on its pole.

And there in all its glory IS the VW on the pole with its two fronts welded together. Beyond at the curve peeking out from behind the bushes is a

cream colored building with a green roof wherein the turkey people who actually own the Felix Forest sell turkey call thingies. Please do stop and

buy several dozen. (Blue VW is now being repainted and thusly replaces with a white sign with a painted two-fronted VW on it and the words Our

Sign Is Being Painted.)

And there is the dreaded Silo-that-shall-not-be-passed itsveryself! Red alert, red alert, red alert. Left hand turn coming up. (Not a cross street, only

a left...so if you turn right, you'll end up in a hilly field. So don't do that.)

OK, so I'm trying to photograph the old abandoned red brick house and turn left at the same time. YOU try it and see how good a shot you get!

Sheesh! Anyhoo, Silvis Road is between those yukky signs and the red house.

More wild left turnings but not crashings and lo and behold, that is Silvis Rd. there that I'm almost making it on to.

There is nothing to describe along here so go a half mile and no more, but do NOT turn in at the FIRST Wellington Estates (Estates, HA!) sign!!

After you have hopefully successfully NOT turned at the first sign, you will pass the scenic wonder that is the yellow car crusher on your left. Do pass it.

Do NOT let it crush your car!!! Your turn will be at the top of the hill where that dark blob is on the right...sorta...maybe.

As seen through my obviously spotty side window, the car crusher displays its full gloriousness. If only its beauty were not partially hidden by the

weathered wood fence...sigh!

I was right. The turn IS at the dark green blob on the right. That's the, um, less than prominent second entrance and the green sign says Tanner St.

Closer up to the entrance and the right turn on Tanner. If you pass that little construction site on the left down there, you've gone too far and

Cleveland is just around that far curve in the forest. Little construction site has now, ack, been turned into a horrid self-storage thingie. As

you turn onto Tanner and start up a slight hill you will gasp in a sudden breath in utter shock and utter the words, "Lawsamercy! What sort

of place does this woman live in???" This is a rather crappy-looking trailer park with a few nicer modular homes scatter amongst them.

You go up Tanner betwixt smallish Bradford pears on both sides and when they peter out just before a sharp curve to the right, you make a

left onto Willie, which is the really curvy road that really curves up the hill, passing the geodesic house with horses on your left. My house is almost

directly behind this one but way higher.

This is a spring 2008 picture from my back yard looking down at that geodesic house and Willie, so you can see what I mean about being higher.

As you round a sharp curve you will see the also gloriously wondrous group of mailboxes, of which my cube is in the middle one. I had stopped, you

will be relieved to know, to get my mail on the way home and was not in actual forward motion whilst taking this picture. When you see that Willie

ends in the forest, it is a good idea to make a left turn 1/4 block before smacking into a poplar tree. That will be Wellington Place, which is one...

flat...block long and modular houses that look like they escaped from a military base in the 1940's.

Also obvimously a springish picture, these flags fly constantly directly across the street from my house, which is the second to the last on the

left, cream with Federal blue shutters...496. Home phone 724-468-6712 in case you have passed the silo which shall not be passed.

And this, spring of '08, is my bubble, an appropriate marker for the great bwain residing within the house behind it.

AND NOW

that we've gone all that way, let us return here...

For should you be of intrepid heart and soul and possibly tired of highway driving and are ready to tackle something a bit more sportsmanlike...

turn left at this light. There is a big Rite Aid on your left just before the light and you will have recently passed the huge red Sheetz on your left. It is really simple, really it is, to go this way. You simply make the left onto Cline Hollow Road. In a half block there will be a four-way stop. Stop there. On your left you'll see a tall brown stone wall. Behind that lurks a Giant Eagle supermarket. After you have stopped, go. Go along Cline Hollow until there simply is no more Cline Hollow on which to go because you have come to a stop sign at a T, oh, maybe 3 or 4 miles. This way is the diagonal

where as 22 to 66 makes a right angle and is several miles longer. Only come the scenic route, though, if there is no ice or if the polar bears have

finished their migration.

You will have passed this barn on your left at the top of a hill. At the bottom of the hill beyond is your T. Stop again. Turn right on Hills Church,

which has just recently been repaved for your driving pleasure. You cannot miss this turn as your road has ended. Very simple. You go one long block and will come to a sharp curve to the right with yellow signs with big black arrows indicating such. Do not go around this curve. Kemerer Hollow Rd. is a sharp left immediately before the curve. Oncoming traffic, what little there is, has a stop sign coming on Hills Church the opposite way so presumably will stop thusly and let you make your sharp left in relative peace. Facing you now is a one-lane bridge. The bridge here washed out and they, so far, have only rebuilt half of it. But it is a short bridge, maybe only a dozen feet long, so fear now, er, not. Coming from this direction, you have the rightofway as the opposite side of the bridge has a stop sign whereas you do not. Cross the bridge and continue along Kemerer Hollow. You will begin to say to yourself, "Man! Am I out in the country or what!!"

You will pass this clever garage on your right and...

...this field on your left. I love round hay bales! But then, I'm easy to please. Sometimes.

You will pass this scenic barn on your right.

Closer view of scenic hay weathering in scenic opening of scenic barn on your right.

In a bit you will round this curve with a white stone lion atop a brick pillar on your right and a nice white fence on your left and Kemerer Rd. going off

Kemerer Hollow Rd. to the right at the little green sign. Do not turn right. Go around curve. You are going down Kemerer Hollow until you reach a

stop sign and you have not done that YET! Behind the white fence lies...

...this house, which is an alpaca farm. The two beasties in the distance be alpaca, a fierce local Indian tribe which loves to disembowel

unwary outlaws. So be good.

If you have made it safely past the alpaca, on both your right AND your left will be more adorable roundish bales, alas, heathen bales and not Christian at all. Depending on the time of year, all bales may or may not be lying about in the fields.

Down a slope and up a slope from the heathen bales, is, lo and behold, the long-awaited stop sign where Hilty Rd. comes in from the right and

Kemerer Hollow stops being Kemerer Hollow and transmogrifies into Hilty. There are a couple of nice, modern houses just beyond the stop

sign. Neither of them are mine. Go straight. Do NOT turn!

Just past the two nice houses is a formerly white barn on your left, also not my residence. Keep going. This is only going to be one looong block

past the stop sign that you will be going, so be patient.

Past the white barn are two mailboxes encased in wood on your right. This is the second and last of said mailboxes. Note the dead snaggy tree on the left. You may drive past it. At the bottom of this slope, Silvis Rd., yes, the very same Silvis Rd. that turns off 66, is to be found. There is a small

road sign with this name beside the second utility pole on the left past the snag.

Having turned right on Silvis, you'll find yourself in a rather tunnel-like forest, which I love to drive through at all seasons. It is along here

Laura found Scruffy.

Having negotiated the green tunnel and gone just a bit more, you'll see this blue house on your left. Much nicer than the car crusher.

Directly across from the blue house and on your right are three of...these. Somewhat less attractive. Also not my residence. But close.

The third and last of the three used-to-be's on the right. Now Silvis starts down hill and the little construction area I said not to pass should

you be coming from the OTHER direction, may now be passed without fear of reprisal. Pass it and turn left on Tanner and up the hill via Willie

to the left onto Wellington. As you go down the hill past this barn, you'll be going down the very hill my white car tried to roll backwards down

while I was shooting the sassafras.

My front door, taken yesterday. House is cream with Federal blue shutters. So, basically, all you have done is turn left on Cline Hollow, gone to its

end, turned right on Hills Church for one block, turned left on Kemerer Hollow and gone to the stop sign where it becomes Hilty, gone one more

block, turned right onto Silvis, then left onto Tanner. A breeze! Fear not!! This was taken for the folks arriving in mid-July of '09. In mid-Nov. there

will not be flowies like in this picture.

My living room, taken early March 2008.

Laura's house, should we manage to go there. Address for GPS's is 1029 Lexington, Export PA 15632.

Her street having somewhat more curb appeal than mine, but as plain as the outside of my house is, I like

its inside better than any other house I've ever lived in.

And Laura's street, but that's my white car and the one from which the travelin' photos were taken.