Pre-Convention Tour Tuesday
The Alfa Romeo Club Pre-Convention Tour for 2019 will be based out of the host hotel, the Doubletree Hilton in Cranberry Twp, PA. Each morning we will depart from the Doubletree Hilton host hotel and return that evening to the Doubletree Hilton in Cranberry Twp, PA. This will permit you to unpack your luggage once and enable you to spend more of your day enjoying the the many tourist activities in and around Western Pennsylvania and the Tri-State area.
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Our plans today start with a backgrounds drive down to the Ohio River. We'll be on a Tour of Old Economy Village and then pass through Raccoon Creek State Park for lunch at Breezy Heights Tavern in Avella, PA then move on to our final tour stop at the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter.
A Pre-Convention tour overview meeting will be held on Saturday Night at 8pm at the hotel. Meeting room TBA. Keep in mind, even if you don't participate in the Pre-Convention Tour, there is still plenty to do in Pittsburgh before the convention kicks off! |
Tuesday Schedule
A tour overview meeting will be held on Saturday Night at 8pm at the hotel.
- 8:45am - 10:00am Doubletree Hilton to Old Economy Village
- 10:00 - 11:30am Tour of Old Economy Village
- 11:30am - 12:30pm - Spirited Drive from Old Economy Village to Breezy Heights Tavern & Restaurant
- 11:30am - 12:00pm - Board Members ONLY - Lunch at Andora Restaurant
- 12:30pm - 2:00pm - Lunch at Breezy Heights Tavern
- 2:00pm - 4:00pm Tour of Meadowcroft Rock Shelter
- 4:00pm - 5:30pm Drive from Meadowcroft Rock Shelter to Doubletree Hilton
- 6:00pm - 9:00pm Informal Meet and Greet at Ember & Vine Restaurant with Shelf Life String Band
Tuesday, July 16 2019
8:45am - 10:00am Doubletree Hilton to Old Economy Village: 270 Sixteenth Street Ambridge, PA 15003
Click Here for maps & directions from Doubletree Hilton to Old Economy Village
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Doubletree Hilton to Old Economy Village
You're going to enjoy this drive down the backroads to Old Economy. There’s an almost-mystical aura traveling underneath the towering canopy of trees. You'll be passing through Bell Acres and Sewickley Heights which where once all part of Sewickley itslef. Sewickley is thought by some to be a Native American word meaning "sweet water." Historians dispute if Native Americans were referring to the Ohio River as the "sweet water" or instead to the syrup derived from a local abundance of maple trees. Alternatively, historian Charles A. Hanna suggested "Sewickley" came from Creek words for "raccoon" (sawi) and "town" (ukli). According to Hanna, the Asswikale branch of the Shawnee probably borrowed their name from the neighboring Sawokli Muscogee. We'll be going through Raccoon State Park on our next leg of today's drive. |
10:00 - 11:30am Tour of Old Economy Village: 270 Sixteenth Street Ambridge, PA 15003:
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Old Economy Village, a National Historic Landmark, tells the story of the Harmony Society, one of the oldest and most successful religious communal groups of the nineteenth century.
The Society sought to create a utopia inhabited by German Lutheran separatists who subscribed to the mystical religious teachings of their leader George Rapp (1757-1847). In Economy, they waited for the second coming of the Messiah. |
Board Members ONLY - Drive to Lunch
11:30am - 12:00pm Lunch at Andora Restaurant. Reservations on Deck under "Alfa Romeo Owners Club" Click Here for maps & directions from Old Economy Village to Andora Restaurant. |
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11:30am - 12:30pm - Spirited Drive from Old Economy Village to Breezy Heights Tavern & Restaurant
Click Here for maps & directions from Old Economy Village to Breezy Heights
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Old Economy Village to Breezy Heights Tavern & Restaurant
This drive takes you on Route 151 across the Ohio RIver and then on Route 18 though Raccoon Creek State Park which is located on the site of a former Victorian era health resort. Frankfort Minerals Springs was the site of a natural mineral spring. Founded by Edward McGinnis in the mid-19th century, he built his resort atop a hill in what is now Raccoon Creek State Park. You are passing through Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests which is an ecoregion of the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests. These forests are known for their rich diversity of plants and animals, because this area was an unglaciated refugium for many species. This are one of the most biologically diverse temperate forest regions on earth. It has an unusually diverse tree flora, with as many as 30 tree species at a single site including many relics of the ancient forest that once covered North America more widely. |
12:30pm - 2:00pm - Lunch at Breezy Heights Tavern: 714 Washington Pike (Route 844) Avella, PA 15312
Lunch - Breezy Heights Tavern
Breezy Heights has been a favorite stop of car clubs for several years. The Rolls Royce Club and BMW Club are some of the more recent visitors to this very unique place to have lunch. Rick Esposito, Owner cell: 412.889.3811 Tel: 724.587.3461 |
1:45pm - 2:00pm Drive to Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village
Click Here for maps & directions from Breezy Heights Tavern to Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village.
Just a short drive up the road to Meadowcroft Rock Shelter. As you twist and turn down the hill and up the other side you can readily see what the area provided good protection for local inhabitants.
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Tour of Meadowcroft Rock Shelter
Meadowcroft Rockshelter, the oldest site of human habitation in North America, provides a unique glimpse into the lives of prehistoric hunters and gathers. This National Historic Landmark, located in Avella, Washington County, Pa., features a massive rock overhang used 16,000 years ago for shelter by the first people in North America. The enclosure at Meadowcroft Rockshelter provides visitors with a unique, never-before-seen perspective into the oldest and deepest parts of this internationally-renowned archeological excavation. Dave Scofield |
4:00pm - 5:30pm Drive from Meadowcroft Rock Shelter to Doubletree Hilton: 910 Sheraton Dr, Mars, PA 16046
Drive from Meadowcroft Rock Shelter to Doubletree Hilton
Route 50 includes an excellent blend of up-close woodsy sections of road with dramatic open sections of road that ride along the crest of a hill, providing you with magnificent vistas of the foliage in both directions. You will then pick up I-79 northbound. As you pass the Kirwan Heights/Heidelberg Exit look down in the valley to your left and you will see a shopping plaza and Ford Dealership. This entire area was once Heidelberg Raceway. It was one of the original NASCAR Racetracks. Lee Petty, father of NASCAR's winningest driver Richard Petty, won his first NASCAR race at the track on October 2, 1949. Petty beat local driver Dick Linder by five laps. Sara Christian finished fifth in that first race, and that was the highest finish by a woman driver in the top level of the NASCAR racing until March 5, 2011, when Danica Patrick finished 4th in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. At the track's final NASCAR race in 1960, Lee Petty won with his son Richard Petty finishing second. There would be no father-son 1-2 finish until Bobby Allison beat Davey Allison at the 1988 Daytona 500. Click Here for maps & directions from Meadowcroft Rockshelter to Doubletree Hilton
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This page last edited: July 13, 2019