Pamelas, The Third Man, A Christmas Tree

11/15/12 40M

Today was a beautifully blue, clear day. After I dropped my daughter off at school I drove toward the trailhead and WYEP played this song, which I took as a very positive omen:


Arrived at the Bastille at about 0800 and fiddled with the bike for a while, then rode around the North Side. Passed by the boat house where a bicyclist taco'd his front wheel the other day on the bumpy transition from a gravel section to a paved trail segment. Fortunately, JeffStewart from the BikePgh forum took the initiative and went out there with some materials and fixed the bump and it was a big improvement, Kudo's to JeffStewart!

Continued to Pamela's Pancakes in Millvale. Western omelette, hot coffee, living the dream. Departed and rode back to the Bastille, had a half hour to kill, took a BikeNap™ along the river in the sun.

At 1130 S. arrived and we rode to Point State Park together. Passing through the Strip District we noticed that a new mural is almost complete at Kelly O's Diner's new location at 100 24th Street:


Next we stopped at Sargent Electric's building at 2767 Liberty Avenue. Their website contains explanations of several of their murals, including these five panels which show the progression of the industry from 1870 through 2023:



We also saw these other murals at the Sargent facility:

I believe this is Nikola Tesla, with a Ferris Wheel (a Pittsburgh innovation) and an electric trolley car.

I believe this depicts KDKA (the world's first commercial radio station) and the Nickelodeon (the world's first movie theater, opened in 1905 on Smithfield Street).

Then we rode to Polish Hill in search of The Third Man, which you may know of as a wonderful movie showcasing Joseph Cotton, but in this case I am referring to the curious case of the Third Man that we missed when we went previously went to photograph a sculpture in Polish Hill.

The Sprout Fund sculpture at 3106 Brereton Street, called "Meeting-Departure" by Paul Bowden, appeared to contain two figures looking into a hole in the wall, but a review of some documents revealed that there were originally three figures. When we asked about the third figure we were told, he's up on the roof, and so today we went back up to Polish Hill.

And there he is, top-left, by the electrical conduits: The Third Man. With that clarified, we descended to the Strip District and stopped at Wholey's Seafood for my first-ever Wholey's Fish Sandwich, which was excellent.

Point State Park, PPG Place, took a photo of the Christmas Tree:


Jail Trail, Hot Metal Bridge, Keystone Metals, REI for some lights to outfit our bikes for tomorrow's Flock Ride on Light-Up-Night. Fort Pitt Bridge, Fort Duquesne Bridge back to the Bastille, just before sunset. 40 miles, an excellent day.