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
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