Six More Weeks of Winter!
So, an item on my girlfriend Giorgio’s bucket list was to see Punxsutawney Phil in person. Or, I guess, in groundhog.
We began our latest adventure on Saturday, February 1st when we set off for Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
We had researched the Groundhog festival and felt we had a good handle on where to go and what to do. The town of Punxsutawney really put a lot of effort into making the festival a fun time. For example, the town square had music, crafts and various vendors set up. There were food and beer tents and a real party atmosphere.
We even got to see Phil’s year-round home!
The bars and restaurants in town were all packed, but we found a friendly Moose Lodge and made some new friends.
Having seen the movie Groundhog Day we thought we knew it all. Not! The movie implies that the festival is in town. Not! It implies you can walk to the event. Not!
The town set up three parking areas with 60 school buses shuttling visitors to the event. Saturday evening, we drove to each of the three lots. One was in town, another at an Aldi supermarket and a third at the local Walmart. We decided that the Walmart was the best of the three with lots of parking spaces.
Regardless, we were comfortable that we figured it out. The buses started at 3 A.M. and we wanted to get to Gobbler’s Knob early for the best spot. Because our hotel was 30 minutes out of town that meant we needed to get up at 2 A.M. to arrive at Walmart at 3 A.M.
We got to Walmart only to find the lot was full! We were redirected to the high school. Where was that??? Thanks to Waze we found it. So did everyone else - there must have been 300 people in line for the bus. But the buses came quickly and soon we were on our way.
Like I said, the movie didn’t prepare us for the mass of people. There musta been 50,000 there. Those closest to the stage had to have been there all night because Gobbler’s Knob was half full at 4:15 when we arrived.
As much as we planned, we didn’t prepare for the cold. 18 degrees with a Windchill of 4. That’s ok when you’re out for a few minutes but not 3+ hours. Punxsutawney Phil makes his weather forecast at sunrise, or about 7:25 A.M. By 5:30 I couldn’t feel my feet.
Like I said, the town was super prepared and they put on a really nice show to keep the crowd entertained. They had Jumbotrons set up for those in the back of the crowd.
It was estimated that there were 50,000 people there. Silly us thought that getting there so early we’d be up front. Noooooo. We were 2/3 back from the stage and by the time Phil was stirring the entire Gobbler’s Knob was packed.
Besides the stage, the place was ripe for people watching. And there were some oddities for sure.
About 6:45 the real festivities began. The town fathers, in top hats and tuxedos, filed on stage. Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania speechified for a bit. Around 7 A.M. the most awesome fireworks I think I’ve ever seen began and lasted for 10-15 minutes. The finale literally filled the entire sky with exploding beauty!
And, at 7:26 A.M. on Sunday, February 2nd, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow.
The tradition endures!
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Since we were ¾ of the way across Pennsylvania, we detoured on the return home and headed southwest to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA.
There are no words….
“A common field one day. A field of honor forever.”
Thought about doing that trip all my life, but always backed off because of the crowds and really cold weather. The whole thing is kinda of weird, as any animal would run back inside, when they saw and heard that crowd.