Mike and Beth's Adventures

My brother has lived on the east coast since he graduated from college.  I'm the engineer in the family and he is the life sciences guru.  For the last 20 years or so, he has been a professor and Department Chair for the Pharmacy and Chemical Biology Department at the University of Pittsburgh. When ever we get together it's just like we are back in junior high school and we are just as goofy and irreverent and silly and full of bodily function jokes as we were as kids.  I wouldn't have it any other way. I never would have thought bike riding would be any good in urban Pittsburgh, but my brother has figured out how to take advantage of various bike paths and routes to string together fun rides.  Abandoned rail road right of ways have been converted to bike trails and former RR bridges have been reborn to allow pedestrians and bikers to cross the rivers which surround the town.  We biked from his house to Fort Pitt where   the  Monongahela  and...

Background The Lincoln Highway holds a fascination for many people.  This is easy to understand as it was the first transcontinental automobile highway in the United States.  It connected New York to San Francisco.  A fellow named Carl Fisher provided the leadership which organized automobile enthusiasts and industry supporters to form the Lincoln Highway Association (LHA).  This group selected the route for the highway and worked with local resources to create an improved coast to coast highway.  Route selection was completed in 1913 and the goal was to complete a rock covered highway in time for the 1915 Pan-American Exposition in San Francisco.  It was estimated that a hardy and self reliant traveler could make the automobile trip from New York to San Francisco in about 30 days. The East Coast had a head start as wagon roads had been laid out and  improved over time.  In Pennsylvania the Lancaster to Philadelphia Turnpike, the Conestoga Trail a...

Alexander Wiper In early June 2025, I toured Gettysburg Pennsylvania and its Civil War Battlefield.  My Great Grandfather, Alexander Wiper, fought here in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment.  The purpose of my visit was two fold.  First, I wanted to more completely understand the clash between the Union Army, commanded by General George Meade, and the Confederate Forces, commanded by General Robert E. Lee.  Second, I wanted to learn more about my Great Grandfather's Gettysburg experience. Alexander Wiper had immigrated from Scotland to the United States 5 years prior to joining Company I of the 63rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, at the age of 16, on August 19th, 1861.   From Civil War Soldier Data Base I don't know what motivated him to enlisted.  Perhaps he needed a  a steady paycheck and he felt being a soldier was a better adventure than being a coal miner.  He did not have a formal education as recorded in the US Census of 1870. The 63rd d...