SibSab 2026 – More Trouble

Continued from:   SibSab 2026 – More Pittsburgh Activities

PREFACE:  October 31st marked my ninth anniversary since retiring from full-time work.  In my eighth anniversary update last year, I mentioned that I had ended all of my part-time work  activities except for consulting with the pharmaceutical company from which I had retired in 2017.  As the end of my consulting assignment with them approached in March of 2026, it was once again extended for another year so there is no change in my “semi-retired” status yet.

Now back to our story already in progress…

As we pulled onto the long driveway leading to our rental house, the first thing we noticed was tree branches, large and small, down everywhere.  In fact, one portion of the circular driveway was blocked by a tree trunk-size branch.  Obviously, the storm that we had seen come through Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon had become a much stronger storm once it arrived in this hilly rural area.

And when we pulled up to the house, we were not even sure it was the right house, even though our GPS app had led us there.

The picture my brother and I both remembered from the rental booking website, while admittedly it was a night shot of the home, still did not look like this house.  However, my brother was able to successfully enter the access code he had been given, and it unlocked the front door.  We then knew we must be at the right house and walked in.

But as we walked into the uncomfortably warm interior, we could quickly discern that the power was out.  In fact, when we opened the freezer and felt warm water in the ice trays, we knew it had been off for quite some time.  Thankfully, there was a nice breeze and after opening numerous doors and windows, the house cooled down very quickly.

While our brother searched for a contact number for the host, I wandered around to the backside of the house and here I recognized the photo from the website—the back of the house.

But what was most impressive was the wonderful view we would have sitting in those chairs.

Our brother was able to find a contact number for the host and after several back-and-forth communications, was told that the best estimate from the local utility company was that power would be restored by 11:00 PM that night.  We then debated what we should do.  In such a rural area, there were not many hotel options, and we didn’t even know if they would have power either.  With the house cooled significantly down, we decided to stay the night.  But without power, we would need to find a local restaurant for dinner.  In that respect, we found a gem.

Situated on the historic National Road (more on that later), was this restaurant which opened in 1822 and had been serving meals for over 200 years!

We all had a delicious dinner, mine being pecan-encrusted salmon.

When we returned to our rental, power was still out so my sister, brother and I sat outside to watch the sunset which was beautiful.

The three of us continued to watch the sky as first we saw Jupiter and Venus appear close to each other before several stars in the Big Dipper became visible.  As the sky darkened, we began to see many other stars.  In fact, we stayed out well past 10:00 PM and amazingly saw several satellites cross the sky, easily discernible from planes as they are just a single light passing across the sky much faster than a plane.  We even saw a shooting star.  In my brother’s photo below, he captured two of the satellites  seen as two short white lines while the red streak above the tree being an airplane.

For most people, the loss of power is never a desired or pleasant state but we all three said had it not been for the absence of power, we would not have sat outside and seen all that we saw.

The next morning, I awoke to a beautiful view out my bedroom window just at sunrise….

… but our house still without power.

We all decided to skip a cold shower (although I did have a cold shave) and go looking for coffee.  We had passed a few coffee shops on our way to dinner the night before and so headed in that direction.  When we drove up to the closest coffee shop, the owner came out before we even opened our car doors to say they were closed due to lack of power.  However, she said their other location further down the road did have power and so we drove to it.  There not only did we get some good hot coffee, but they had a power strip sitting on one of the outdoor tables where we could charge our phones.  This latter find was probably even more important as our next stop was Fallingwater where we all wanted to be able to take lots of photos, particularly our own of that iconic view of the house and waterfall.

When our brother booked our Fallingwater tickets, he sent us a link from their website to a live video camera of that famous view which showed that the three-year-long restoration process was still in full swing with metal scaffolding enclosing much of the exterior of the house.

When my brother shared the video link with us, he accurately described it as an overzealous dental restoration project.  We had already delayed this trip a year, and we did not want to wait another year, so we just hoped for the best.  Thankfully, before their season opened mid-March just in time for the home’s 90th anniversary, all of that scaffolding had been removed so we knew we would have an unobstructed view of the house from that vantage point.

And little did we even know at the time that we would also be touring Fallingwater and the other Frank Llyod Wright home sites on the 159^th anniversary of Frank’s June 8^th birthday.

As background in case, you are not familiar with its history, Fallingwater was designed by Frank Llyod Wright for Edgar Kaufmann, Sr., his wife Liliane, and their grown son, Edgar, Jr.  The Senior had amassed his fortune through his downtown Pittsburgh department store, aptly named Kaufmann’s.  Edgar Sr. purchased the rural property in 1935 with the intent to build a weekend retreat.  It was at his son’s urging that Wright be the one to design the home.

    To be continued…