Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: Freedom falls in Venango County, Pennsylvania

We woke up this morning in Youngston, Ohio and ate terrible hotel food in our room. I mean, "terrible" might be strong. It was just hotel breakfast food, which I'm sure as soon as I say that, you can imagine what I mean. We are trying to wear masks in public spaces, so even though a lot of people were using the dining room, we did not. 

Since we did not have very far to go today, we decided to plan a couple of detours. The first one was to Freedom Falls. We were looking for things that were just off I-80--or at least not too far off--and Shawn found this falls that was on the Shull River. For some reason, her GPS does not deal well with any location that doesn't have an actual address. We were able to plug in the very vague description of "Freedom Falls, Shull Run, PA" into *my* phone and suddenly we were underway.

I will say that my phone also liked taking us down roads that were unpaved, gravel and named "Blair Road" which we re-named "Blair Witch Road" due to its scariness. 

However, it also delivered this amazing location. I was really uncertain though when the lady in the GPS announced, "Your destination is on the right" and then turned herself off when we are on a STEEP dirt road. We were able to turn around at the bottom of the road and then go back to where she suggested the falls were and pull into a pullout. Uncertain, Shawn and I got out and.. sure enough, we could hear the distinctive roar of a waterfall. I noticed an obvious trail, which we were able to follow down towards the river where we found the falls. 

I was impressed, both with the falls and my GPS!

Then we got back on the road feeling like we had already had a pretty grand adventure and we really didn't need a lot more to be satisfied. And, I'm a very funny traveler, if I get a nice "destination" out of the travel, I'll pretty much go all day. So, we took a couple of more detours. The next was not as successful as the falls. We found a roadside attraction called Doolittle Station in DuBois PA.


Image: The weirdness that is Doolittle Station

I'm not sure what madness of consumerism overkill decided that a collection of railroad boxcars also need DINOSAURS (and Bigfoot,) but it is delightfully kitschy. 

Shawn was less convinced than I was, but we both agreed that the food at the creamery was actually quite good. 

From DuBois, we headed back onto I-80. The last thing that we really wanted to experience was a covered bridge, since Pennsylvania is known for its Amish settlers. So, we turned off near Loganton, PA and managed to use my miraculous GPS by plugging in "covered bridge near Loganton" and we not only found the bridge, but also a small Amish community!


Image: Amish farmer on a horse-driven plow


Covered bridge!

We have made it as far as the border of New York State, so I am going to once again collapse into the hotel bed and sleep!

I hear the Twin Cities got a little rain. I hope you are all doing okay!