I'm old enough to have seen three generations of young men in my family enter manhood. It seems the rite of passage has been to travel with peers on a voyage of discovery. Did they get this from their Western PA ancestors or their ancestors who were brave enough to get on a small wooden boat in Europe and sail off with the faith there would be an adventure when they got off the boat? Times change, but human nature seems to me to be on a steady course. In this latest generation of family, the women are doing it too, only the young women seem to want to see where their ancestors came from, they go to Europe. Read George Washington's own account of his trip to Ft. LeBeouf. I think he was 21 yrs. old at the time he did it. You really get a feel for the attraction of the frontier. I think it was the "Harley Experience" of the times. If he had been 25 yrs. old, he probably would have had better sense than to go on the expedition. His description of crossing the Allegheny River as the Spring ice was breaking up probably can only be fully appreciated by some one who has seen the geography/terrain and the snow and ice of Western PA.