Day Ride to St. Marys, PA

It was another Sunday morning, with a ride planned to St. Marys, Pennsylvania. It was a destination I heard about from a club that rides there once a year.

Some unfortunate events kept Bones and Hammer from going: Bones was out riding his trike a couple days before when he experienced a problem with a wheel and had to get his bike hauled home; Hammer had a falling accident at a Sheetz on the previous ride to Ohiopyle, and he was experiencing several problems with his knee. So, it was four amigos, but we swapped out the guys for Goldilocks (who hasn't been on the trips this year).

Meanie and me, Tiny and Goldilocks, met in Hubbard and rode to Starbucks in Hermitage for a quick coffee. And we met later than planned (9am instead of 8:15), and didn't hit the road until 10-ish. We had two options to begin heading east - US-62 to Franklin, or PA-208 to Emlenton. We opted for US-62 as we hadn't been that way in quite a while. Off toward Mercer we went under perfect blue skies with happy floating clouds. It never did get too hot or humid.

The way Meanie likes to go to Franklin is by following 62 but taking the kind of shortcut on PA-965. This reconnects with 62 further east, just shy of Polk. We kept on 62 to the fun downhill slope into Franklin. My mother's father, Walt, was from Franklin; he lived on Front Street, I've learned this from reading letters from him to the woman who would be my mom's mom and my grandma, Ruth. They found and nurtured the ultimate love for a bit over ten years, and it was torn from them by the Korean War where Walt, an Air Force pilot, was killed.

From Franklin, we took US-322 east heading toward the town of Corsica. So far the ride had been really good. We then made a left turn north on PA-949. This road takes you to the town of Ridgeway via the countryside, and through the state game lands #44 at the southern edge of the Allegheny State Forest. It was beautiful!!! When I get to riding out amongst the trees and mountains, I get a little crazy for it and start singing songs to the trees and rocks, about the lacy sunlight patterns and pine smells and critters and fairies and Ryls and oh, about all of nature. I tell people that I could go feral at any moment, so don't be surprised when I do!

Well, we got to Ridgeway, and with Meanie leading and me with the directions, we got off course in town, so we stopped for fuel - at a full-service gas station! Who does that anymore? Our next road goal was to get on PA-120 east which goes right into St. Marys. We were planning on eating lunch at the St. Marys Corner Restaurant. PA-120 was also a nice road and it didn't take very long from Ridgeway.

This is in front of the post office.
St. Marys Restaurant is on the left at the corner. 

So at the T with S. St. Marys Road, we turned left, then an immediate right on E. Mill, and a left on Chestnut (the restaurant's road). We scored with free meter parking in front of the Post Office, only to walk across to the restaurant and find that it had closed at 1, and it was now 1:30. Bummer. St. Marys seemed so much smaller and with the buildings more closely bound that I thought it would be. And nothing about it seemed interesting. That's my opinion. Maybe there was something there to take note of, but nothing stood out. We didn't even take pictures, with the exception of this historical board that I can't even read!

We were standing on the corner across from a Sheetz looking all lost and like obvious tourists when a woman started towards us from Sheetz. She must have been a local and saw that we wanted food and didn't know where to go. Her suggestion was only a short distance south of there to the First Chance Inn & Restaurant in the town of Kersey. 

We got back on St. Marys street (PA-255) and headed south. From there, we took the road to the right which is PA-948, and shortly there on the left was the First Chance, our second choice, but we took a chance and it ended up being a GREAT choice! 

Your dining area options include the restaurant side, the bar side, or the outside deck. We opted for a nice high table on the bar side. The menu had all kinds of good stuff on it, from classic burgers and fried appetizers, to steak dinners and seafood. Meanie and Goldilocks got cheeseburgers with fries, Tiny got the sirloin tips with gravy and pasta (I think), and I got the super delicious bowl of the buffalo chicken mac-n-cheese with a salad. All was so good! We'd go back, both for the roads and the food. 

I texted this pic to my mom :)

They use random coffee mugs!

Buffalo Chicken Mac-n-Cheese

Fuel stop

Big 'Ol Meanie

From First Chance, we turned toward home. Our route back was pretty simple. We turned left from the restaurant and left onto Dagus Mines Road, then right onto Toby Road. This connected us with US-219 and we headed south there. At PA-28, we turned right and headed west toward Brockville and caught US-322 west from there. We went through Clarion, and at the town of Shippenville, we took PA-208 all the way back through Grove City and Volant.

When we got to the intersection of 208 and 18, Meanie made a turn into the Ryder's Restaurant lot to get some frozen custard at Abes. I had the peanut butter, Meanie had vanilla, Goldilocks had pineapple cream, and Tiny had the cheesecake. Yummo!!!

We rested a little while longer and I took two photos of some nature things. While the sun was still above the horizon, we mounted the bikes and headed for home on route 18, heading west again out of West Middlesex for Hubbard. The total miles were about 270, that's a good ride, and like I said earlier, the weather was perfect. August is the new July, so hopefully September will still be grand for road trips.

What we learned on the ride too was to make plans to go back because just a little further east is the Elk Country Visitors Center and viewing areas where America's largest herds of elk roam and make a living. We all agreed that would be something to see, unh?

So back to the hills we'll roam too in all directions from home. Oh, my heart yearns for a trip to the Presidential Range in New Hampshire again, only this time on my motorcycle. But I also want to see the Rockies from the ground not just from a plane, and wait, what about the Colossi in Unger, West Virginia, or the Devil's Whip road in North Carolina?

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all have the money and time to follow our freedom wherever the wind takes it?

- Holly