Groundhog Day - in July

We went groundhog hunting, kind of. It was our 2nd annual sunrise ride, when we get up at 3 am to be at breakfast by 4:30am, and hit the road at 5am to ride into a sunrise instead of the usual sunset. Yeah, right. We're talking about bikers in the wee hours - some move fast, others not so much!

But we hit the road at 5:30 heading east out of West Middlesex, PA on Route 62. Riding out to Mercer, we snuck behind the courthouse to catch Scrubgrass Road (Bryon's favorite because it feels like you went through a time warp to get closer to Franklin, PA compared to 62 and 956). We stopped at the Sheetz in Franklin as usual, bullshitting under the new sun.

Our destination was Punxsutawney, PA, the old stomping grounds for our friend Tiny's dad. We caught Route 322 east at Franklin, and that is a nice road for riding. Through Clarion and some other small towns, we made it to Route 36 South, turned right on that, and made it to groundhog country.

If you've never been there, but maybe to other towns known for animals (like Cincinnati and it's flying pigs), Punxsutawney is marked by giant painted statues of groundhogs. Biker's can be a smart bunch, so I'm not sure why we all kept calling them beavers! Well, of course, our dirty minds kept making beaver jokes, like when we stopped at Lily's restaurant there and Hammerhead noted the footlong weiners on the menu, to which I replied that they were for the giant beavers! LOL, even the waitress laughed and had to walk away.

Lily's food was good. I think we'd all recommend it as a good stop on a ride east. And she has a bakery next door. We learned that Phil the Groundhog (not beaver) resides at the public library in town when not working in February, so there we went. There's a viewer windows on the outside of the building and you can watch Phil eat, play, or apparently what he does most - sleep.

There was this one cool groundhog statue painted like the Statue of Liberty. Really cool. Didn't get pics of the other ones, so I guess you'll have to ride out there yourself. Round trip mileage on the route we took was 240 miles. Maybe you'll have your own sunrise ride and make it out for some good riding, delicious food, and some big brown beavers.

Eat to ride, ride to eat,
Holly

The Ohio Route 164 & Route 9 Loop

As usual, we're busy riding and working and, well, here's a little about a recent ride.

In June, Stitchblade let a 200 mile ride south of Youngstown on Route 164. If you go through Columbiana and Lisbon on state route 164, you'll find a really nice road with sweet curves and sweeps - but respect the 5,000 yellow arrow and speed limit signs, the curves are real!

We followed a nice loop that on Google maps resembled the outline of West Virginia. You stay on Route 164 south until you intersect with Route 9 in Kilgore, Ohio. Follow that North. It will bring you to Route 172 - turn right/East - and go to Mark's Landing at Guilford Lake, that's where we landed.

It was a nice, busy place, and took a few minutes to get parked. It was a Sunday, with poker runs coming through. The food was actually good, so we recommend it as a stop, plus the lake was nice.

We reversed route and went back the same way. Okay, so if you do that, make sure to stop at the only gas station for what seems a million miles that is just up the road from Mark's Landing. We had two guys run out of gas. Reserve fuel was hailed after we found a town with not one, but TWO gas stations!

It was a hot day, humid, sweating even while riding. Lots of red arms and faces were brought back to Hubbard. Seriously, if you have all day, the 164/9/172 loop was a great ride. Next time, I think we'll stay on 164 and see where it goes.