Road Trip (Day 3)
May. 12th, 2022 07:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouse
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!
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Date: 2022-05-13 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-13 08:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-13 01:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-13 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-13 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-13 02:08 am (UTC)I'm a huge fan of Roadside America. I have the original book, which is thumbed halfway to death, but there is also a website. https://www.roadsideamerica.com/
These guys love roadside kitsch with all their hearts and souls, and get into obsessions like tracking down all the Muffler Man statues in America. Yup, sure enough, Doolittle Station is there (although you have to look it up by location - Dubois, Pennsylvania). I guess the official name is "Dr. Doolittle's Roadside Cafe & Creamery."
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Date: 2022-05-13 08:35 pm (UTC)I should post more of Doolittle Station at some point for you. I found it to be tremendous. Shawn, as I said, was less impressed, I think because it was not entirely open for business yet and so a lot of the things to look at were still closed for the season.
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Date: 2022-05-13 04:49 am (UTC)It's also taken me to two formerly unknown Willamette River Ferries between Eugene and Newberg.
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Date: 2022-05-13 08:37 pm (UTC)I do think these things have the weirdest little personalities. We have an MP3 player that we call "Captain America" because, even though we have over 2,000 songs on it, it will gravitate towards Big Band and the Andrew Sisters EVERY TIME.
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Date: 2022-05-13 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-05-13 07:25 pm (UTC)I am berating myself for not ever putting out my rain gauge so as to know just how much a little rain is, but it certainly made a lot of noise. And the list of flooded intersections included 50th and Nicollet and 28th and Lyndale, not far from us really. Also I think our neighbors to the south were having to pump out their basement, poor babies. From that side of the house it all sounded like a solid-wall monsoon rain, while from other sides it was just a regular torrential downpour. So I think that's what was going on.
P.
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Date: 2022-05-13 08:40 pm (UTC)And, thank you, we have a lot of fun as a family on our road trips.
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Date: 2022-05-13 10:55 pm (UTC)There sure was a lot of rain, though! We had a lot of water in our basement, but it was gone by the next morning.