Turning for home with a sense of accomplishment, there was plenty of adventuring left to be had on the second half of our journey. Before we do, a bit of a sidebar related to my chosen health profession.

As you remember from Part 6, we enjoyed some brews at Helltown, and Friday evening we had eaten dinner at Applebee’s in Mt. Pleasant. To get there, we drove straight to the middle of town, to the corner of West Main and South Diamond. Below left is a picture of the town boundary, the purple line is Helltown, and the orange circle is the intersection. This stood out to for two reasons:

1) the statue/monument in the centre of the intersection. As a foreign driver unfamiliar with traffic flow, pulling up to the light was somewhat strange; it appears that you’re aimed to drive straight into the monument, especially in the dark. It’s almost like a roundabout without the middle section, just an object in the middle of the roadway. You’ll notice that with the direction we were traveling, the stop line was quite a distance from the intersection. We needed to pull up, veer right and cut left around the backside of the monument.

2) Tobacco-Land – The green box above-right caught my eye so we snapped a picture on the way back through. Nowadays, the decline in smoking and tobacco product sales as largely been brought about through public health initiatives. As a pharmacist, I strongly believe that smoking tobacco long term takes such a toll on the human body, both physically and emotionally. It presents a significant comorbidity to so many chronic health issues, including pulmonary, cardiac and diabetes complications. That said, even with the best intentions, it’s not an easy habit to break, so accessibility is important. Smoke shops were once quite prevalent in corner stores and pharmacies, but the few that remain are usually not as obvious.

Hopefully, this shop owner will consider a re-branding before too long.

Getting back on track, our intrepid explorers feasted at the hallowed continental breakfast area of the hotel and set northward towards New York state:

This was a fairly straight run to our destination, and at just under 4 hours (all but 5 minutes being highway), one of the quicker commutes to date:

• Hopped on the I-76 (PA Turnpike) towards Pittsburgh. Continuing northwest on this road across the Ohio border would take you to Cleveland, the site of the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame and the birthplace of Drew Carey. Many would recognize his celebrity from either his stand-up comedy routines, the self-titled Drew Carey Show, his hosting duties on the improv hit, “Whose Line is it Anyway?”, or as host of The Price is Right following Bob Barker’s retirement.
• Needing to re-route north on the I-79 at the Cranberry Township, we encountered a rather odd interchange:

If left to our own devices, passing the highway and doubling-back through numerous squiggles on the map, we were sure to get disoriented and lost. Thankfully our navigation system kept us on track!

• We continued north on the I-79, passing Harmony, Portersville, Amsterdam, Kerrtown, and the curiously spelled Edinboro. Incidentally, this route passes about 20 minutes west of Butler, PA, the site of the presidential campaign rally where an assassination attempt took place.
• Reaching Erie, we veered onto highway I-90 and continued northeast passing North East (a real place) and the NY/PA border.
• Once we were back in the empire state, we followed the great Lake Erie through Barcelona, Dunkirk, Silver Creek, and Lackawanna until we descended on Cheektowaga, the 2nd most populous inner suburb of Buffalo, after Amherst, NY.

Cheektowaga was not originally on the itinerary. For the past 2+ decades I had kept in touch with a former professor from my pharmacy program. He had left Dalhousie University in Halifax and moved his young family to Erie, PA to start a new position. We had visited with ‘Dr. Bob’ and his wife a handful of times in the ensuing years. I still fondly recall our last trip to Erie and visit to the Quaker Steak and Lube, a restaurant chain operating in states up and down the eastern seaboard. Most notable was their hot sauce menu. The current list has 22 entries, including Atomic Scorpion (which probably requires a waiver), but I recall it being considerably longer 15 years ago.

At any rate, our plan was to connect in Erie on our way through to Niagara/Buffalo until I was informed they had left Pennsylvania once he retired from teaching. The kids were grown and out of the nest, so it was time them to downsize. Thankfully it was conveniently along our planned route so we booked a hotel for the night.

Cheektowaga is the home to roughly 90,000 people. The town was named Chictawauga by the Seneca people, the western-most of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. It translates to ‘Land of the Crabapples’. Originally a rural farming community, post-WWII saw a population boom and suburban sprawl. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation erected a plant that provided employment for decades. A few quick tidbits:

• The town encompasses some smaller villages and neighborhoods, one of which is called ‘South Cheektowaga / South Line’, not to be confused with the census-designated place (CDP – there’s that term again) also called Cheektowaga that contains about 85% of the total population.
• 40% of the residents are of Polish descent, and is the sister-city of Lowicz, in central Poland. A further 30% are of German descent. Incidentally, Lowicz also has similar cultural and commercial ties with cities in Germany, France, Lithuania and two others in Poland.
• Notable celebrities from the area include Christine Baranski (The Good Wife, Mamma Mia!, Bad Mom’s Christmas), and Danny Ozark, the late former manager of the Philadelphia Phillies during the 70’s.

Upon arrival, we settled in to our third straight Holiday Inn (love those IHG loyalty points!). Our friends lived a short 7-min drive away and met us at the hotel to catch up. It’s amazing how you can meet with people after so long but still pick things things up where they had left off. We chatted for a couple of hours before they led us north to the town of Lockport, and the New York Beer Project for a relaxing dinner.

With Lockport being the original, there are three locations in NY state, and one in Orlando, FL. The ambiance feels more like a beer garden than conventional restaurant. With a massive open concept bar the size of an industrial warehouse, this site features a full brewery, a gastropub, a separate taproom for smaller groups, a patio and tiki-bar, a second-level events space and rooftop terrace.

The menu is fabulous and varied. I settled on the Carnegie Sandwich, with turkey, bacon and swiss on sourdough. The burgers were also fabulous, and all came with an incredible side of fries, which could be upgraded to sweet potato with their ‘brown sugar and cream cheese sauce’. The beers were decent, but not too memorable, with the Cherry Blonde standing out.

Choosing to have a quiet evening back at the hotel, we said our goodbyes and made our way back to once again fight with the smart TV.

Please join us next time, where we head east towards one of my favourite spots: Cooperstown, NY and the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. I took entirely too many pictures but will do my best to whittle them down.

Until then, Happy New Year! See you in 2025!

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, employer or affiliation.