101: The world is moving on (Terrace Village/Crawford-Roberts)

Unique Streets: 47

Miles Walked: 8.6

Street Names (italicized have been walked on another day): Centre Avenue, Soho Street, La Place Street, Reed Street, Brackenridge Street, Oak Hill Drive, Oak Hill Court, James Henry Jr. Place, Garner Court, Burrows Street, Eckstein Place, Wadsworth Street, Champions Drive, Allequippa Street, Outlet Street, Seine Way, Wyandotte Street, Terrace Street, Whitridge Street, Ellers Street, Passage Way, Dunseith Street, Dauler Way, 5th Avenue, Craft Avenue, Craft Place, Boulevard of the Allies, Hamlet Street, Galena Way, McDevitt Place, Brenham Street, Kirkpatrick Street, Bentley Drive, Nigh Way, Lombard Street, Heldman Street, Roberts Street, Miller Street, Foreside Place, Vine Street, Protectory Place, Wylie Avenue, Arthur Street, Clark Way, Enoch Street, Granville Street, Webster Avenue, Devillers Street, Sweeny Way, Glendora Street, Burmah Way, Green Street, Linton Street, Davenport Street, Erin Street, Trent Street, Ishar Way, Wooster Street, Calliope Way, Grove Street, Covel Way, Rose Street, Kearney Way, Dinwiddle Street, Dinwiddle Court, Elmore Street, Addison Place, Addison Street, Hemans Street, Vera Cruz Way, Humber Way, Mahon Street, Hallett Street.

Ok, I definitely overdid it today. I found myself in Oakland because I had some important business to attend to: a beer trade. My friend had a can of Overbrook which was one of the missing East End Brewing Company You Are Here Beers and I traded him a crowler from Braindead Brewing in Dallas, TX. Once that transaction was over, I drove back down to Centre Avenue in the Middle Hill.

I visited a Port-a-potty on La Place and then made my way into Terrace Village. Immediately, I found a closed street that Google called Former Burrows Street.

Further into Terrace Village, I found a street called Wyandotte that my records said I had walked on before. Walking on this street produced no memory of having done so before and I wondered if I was losing it. I think I would have remembered walking down a “street” that looked like this:

Back home, I researched some more and found that Wyandotte used to continue all the way down to 5th Avenue where there is still a tiny offshoot. Johnny and I had walked it back in April.

On Terrace Street, I found a Parking Chair that was a bit fancier than your garden variety metal folding type.

I made my way onto Carlow University’s campus and one look at the downtrodden faces of the students made me glad to not be in school anymore. An Icarus sculpture seemed appropriate if not ill-placed on a college campus.

While staring at my map outside of Salud Juicery (I got some Sweet Recovery juice to go) I realized there was a handful of streets in South Oakland I’d never walked on. I got down to Craft Street to see the Pittsburgh Playhouse being demolished before my eyes.

After a bit of exploring in South Oakland, I made my way through West Oakland and Uptown via 5th Avenue. I came across a street that I knew I had walked on before with Johnny.

Since I wasn’t with Johnny, I decided to explore more of the street with the hopes of coming out on Beelen. When he had been with me, we saw a snake right before this street and he was terrified of walking through weeds. I started up the cobblestone and saw signs of life.

Then I saw a disassembled tent in the weeds to the side of the trail I was walking. A disassembled tent is ok to see in the woods while being female and walking by yourself. A fully erect one, not so much. Further up, a strange sign warned or cajoled me. I’m not sure which.

I walked past the sign and saw 4 tents. I quickly retreated, not wanting to disturb whoever was living here. Back on 5th, I wondered what these berries were.

I walked up Kirkpatrick and took a left on Bentley. What I found was a brand new housing development called Skyview Lofts. The yards were impeccably landscaped and there were multiple playgounds for children to explore. I was not expecting this and was quite taken aback. A Google Street View search shows that there used to be an older and if I’m being honest, much sadder looking housing plan right in this spot. I was glad to see this area has gone through an improvement.

I walked down Bentley to Nigh and then made a right on Lombard. The day was getting hotter and hotter and while I was getting closer to my car, I wasn’t nearly done yet. There were still quite a few streets in Crawford-Roberts and the Middle Hill that I hadn’t walked yet and I was determined to walk them.

As I meandered many of the streets, I saw some interesting things like this old, empty elementary school building.

As I was walking, I kept seeing military helicopters swarming around and figured they were in the middle of a training exercise. At one point, I stopped to watch them and saw a huge plume of smoke rising from a hill across the Monongahela.

Hey! There’s an app for that! Pulse Point is an app that puts major emergency events on a map. Your county/city has to subscribe to it to be able to see the events and luckily Allegheny County Emergency Medical Services does. I opened it up and zoomed to where the fire looked like it was happening. It was a major house fire on Reifert Street in Mount Oliver. Later, on the news, I learned that people were trying to escape the fire from their roof and ended up throwing a toddler to a man on the ground below. Everyone got out safely. I sent the above picture to my friend Amy and she said she saw an angel in the smoke.

Back on my walking mission, I snapped a pic of St. Benedict the Moor Church.

I wondered what happened to the Saint’s head but when I looked at it from the front of the church, it was clearly visible. How many children in this neighborhood see what appears to be a headless man and are frightened by it? I would have been.

I back tracked many times for the remainder of my walk so I could make sure I covered EVERY SINGLE STREET. It was arduous and I almost cried when I was standing in front of my car and spied three more streets. I would almost cry again when I realized that I had already walked them on another day.

Relive ‘9/3/19’

Check out all of the pictures I took on Google Photos.