Because of the fog, I decided to head to the Laurel Highlands or
Mt. Davis. Driving there, the fog varied from very heavy to reasonably
light. One of the worst spots was the Wilkinsburg entrance to the
Parkway, and I almost turned around and went home.

I hit another bad spot on the turnpike, just after New Stanton, as I
climbed through the layers of fog. But a few miles before the Donegal
exit I suddenly broke through to very clear skies. I immediately began
to see meteors, a dozen in the first minute, while I was driving!
Before I got off the turnpike, I had seen more meteors than I'd ever
seen in one night.

I got off at Donegal, but there was still scattered patches of ground 
fog, so I decided to go higher, to Laurel Mountain. As I was driving 
there I went through more dense fog as I approached Ligonier, and 
began to doubt my decision. I knew the show had started and I worried 
that it was peaking early and I would miss it. But I stuck to the 
plan, and the fog cleared again before halfway up the mountain.

I was headed to the ski area parking lot, but the park entrance was
closed. There was a streetlight near this location, yet many people
had gathered there because it was the biggest open area along the
road. I stopped and started getting things out of the car, but I
realized that it was a bad place to stay because the people were
shining lights and cars were driving in and out. So I picked up my
stuff and hiked about a half-mile along the closed park road, until I
reached a relatively tree-free area. But even at this place, the
forest did not permit a full-sky view.

I was now alone in a pretty dark place, with meteors flashing so fast
that I quickly decided not to try counting them. It was just before
5am. I could barely take my eyes off the sky to set up my camera. The
radiant quickly became obvious because there were so many to trace
back from various directions. I spent most of my time looking and
shooting toward the north, with the radiant high in the sky behind me.

The brightest meteors lit up the landscape and left persistent 
trails. I was lucky enough to have one of the brightest go right 
through the center of my exposure. Its trail was visible for nearly 
ten minutes. After ending the exposure of the meteor itself, I took 
another to record the trail, which started out as a vertical line and 
evolved to a backward question mark, then a C shape, and finally a 
horizontal line.

At times I saw six or seven at once in my field of vision. It seemed
like I caught meteors in almost every exposure (50mm lens on a
tripod), and some of my shots may have caught a dozen or more. We
shall see. [So far, the most I have found in a single frame is six.] I
stayed until shortly after 6. By then there were fewer meteors due to
twilight, and the ZHR may have been diminishing anyway. But as I was
walking back to the car there was still plenty of entertainment.

On the drive back, I was amazed to see meteors in the blue morning 
sky. I saw a very nice one at 6:43, only ten or fifteen minutes 
before sunrise. At that time, the only star I could see through the 
windshield was Sirius.

In the short time I was there, I did not notice an obvious peak, just 
short cycles when there were more or fewer visible. It also seemed 
that particular parts of the sky had periods of heavier or lighter 
activity. Overall, I estimate that I saw 800-1200 meteors. But I did 
not count them, so take this estimate with a grain of salt while you 
wait for the more experienced observers to file their reports.

I was at about 40 09.730 N, 79 09.519 W, at 2742 elevation according
to my GPS. This is 45 miles from here (straight line), and it took
about 1.5 hours each way (in the fog). The temperature was about 25
degrees, and there was no wind. I guess the hike helped me to stay
cozy warm. It's a good thing because I had left the sleeping bags and
lawn chair back in the car.