| We camped at Lantz Corners near Kane in north west
Pennsylvania. Nearby is the Kinzua State Park, one of many in this part of
the state with almost 12 million acres of forest in total. We went to have a
look and passed through Mount Jewitt, whose main claim to fame is this mural
painted on a the wall of a large building. We've seen a few of these on our
travels but not many as vivid as this one. It covers 3,600 square feet and
represents various aspects of the area's natural and past history, such as
the Scandinavian settlers represented by the Viking longboat. |  |
 |
I'm not quite sure why there are dinosaur skeletons in this garden but there
are. There are some strange people about..... |
| Kinzua Gorge lies across the route of trains from
Buffalo to Pittsburgh. It was bridged in 1882 with a 2100ft viaduct 301ft
above the valley bottom. It was rebuilt in steel from the original iron in
1900 to carry the heavier trains then in use. At the time it was the highest
viaduct of its type in the world. |  |
 |
And so it served railway traffic until 1959. In 1977 it became a national
engineering landmark site and was still in use for passenger excursion
trains. |
| Then on 21st July 2003 an F1 tornado touched
down here with wind speeds of 70-112mph. The anchor bolts failed and 11 of
the 20 pillars were blown over. The hurricane swept on to create a trail of
destruction over a mile and a half long. |  |
 |
It doesn't take long for nature to reclaim the unused roadbed. There are
traces near the campsite too. I don't suppose anyone will ever reclaim the
rails. |
| Touchdown was over quite a narrow patch but virtually
every tree in its path was stripped and uprooted. Tornadoes are rare up
here, and an F1 is the weakest strength. I cannot imagine the destruction of
an F5. A reminder of the power of nature and how puny we can be in its face. |  |
 |
New growth has started but it will be years before the trees have fully
recovered. However the news is not all bad - the destruction of existing
forest cleared the land and allowed new species to generate, which also
allowed a variety of new insect and small animal species to come in. The
original tree species are slower growing and will eventually come to
dominate the area again. |
| The temperature here has now dropped markedly and the
leaves have turned very quickly. The whole area is very colourful especially
when the sun shines. |  |
 |
Not all the trees turn bright red but the ones that do really stand out. |
| Halloween is seriously celebrated here with many
houses and gardens decorated, as with this inflatable witch. |  |
 |
The camp site is absolutely overrun with rabbits. The don't move as you
drive up but carry on just eating the grass. We had to shoo them away before
we could move into our allocated spot. |
We are close to the end of our 2007 tour. We will return to Springville in a
day or so and start to pack up and winterise the RV. We return to England in
just over a week. |