Day 3

Are you still in Altoona?

Yep. But it's Monday (September 11) and the Eastern League takes Monday off, so I don't have a game to catch today.

Oh cool, so you're just going to spend the whole day in Altoona?

Well... there aren't a lot off attractions in Altoona. There's the previously mentioned Horseshoe Curve and there's a museum about railroad workers, but both are closed on Mondays. And I have a hotel reservation to make in Akron tonight. But I don't want to leave Altoona without doing anything...

Before reading this, did you know anything about Altoona, Pennsylvania? I just knew one thing -- one thing I read on some corner of the Internet some time ago. Something I didn't really know was real, but I wanted to find out.

My goal for today was to find Altoona-style pizza.

If you're unfamiliar, Altoona-style pizza is probably unlike other pizzas you're familiar with. Some even question if it is pizza. It has a thick, Sicilian style crust with tomato sauce, sliced green peppers, and salami. And on top of everything are several slices of American cheese.

Oh yeah.

To be fair to the people of Altoona, the pizza is not popular in town. I could only find one place that regularly sells it. I walked into 29th St. Pizza Subs & More, looked at their menu, and thought my dream was dead when I couldn't find it listed. But I talked to the guy at the front, he mentioned, and I ordered two slices of pizza, Altoona-style. Behold:

Honestly, it wasn't bad! I would have toned it down a bit on the cheese, but I did not come away feeling disgusted, and I felt like that was a possibility.

Also, if you find yourself in Altoona, I highly recommend 29th St. Pizza Subs & More. Their sandwiches, looked delicious, I got two gigantic pizza slices for $6.50, and everyone there was incredibly nice (they all were interested in my trip). Plus, they were so happy I got the Altoona-style, they put a picture of me on their Facebook page. (I think they saw my Alabama hat and assumed I'd come from there).

Mission accomplished.

Where did you go next?

After having a very Altoona lunch, I departed.

I'm driving to Akron today, but by the time I get there, it'll be too late to do anything fun. But Pittsburgh right in the middle between Altoona and Akron, and there are lots of things to do in Pittsburgh.

Namely, there's the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History. And as any good natural history museum should, they have these:

And these:

Big ol' dinosaurs. It's a really lovely museum. (Just one qualm -- they never scanned my admission ticket. I bought a $25 ticket before leaving Altoona because their website claimed they preferred timed tickets. But when I got there, no one stopped me so I just walked in. Pitt students get in for free, and maybe they assumed I was one?) I walked through the art museum as well, but I was pretty tired and didn't pay as much attention.

After exiting the museum, I left Pittsburgh and made my way toward Akron.

So that's it? No baseball?

No baseball today. I checked into my hotel in Akron and had a quiet night. I have three consecutive baseball evenings coming up, so I decided to get food at the TGI Friday's across the parking lot and have an easy night.

Click HERE for Day 4, in which Will makes some animal friends, makes a human friend, finds a really great museum, and gets back to baseball.