Monday, February 25, 2008

Ground Hog Day, 2008

On Friday, February, 1, 2008 I join two friends for a quick trip into classic Americana. Lar had been wanting to do this ever since he and his wife had driven through the tiny town of Punxsultawney, PA a couple years back on the return leg of a trip to visit family. He talked me into coming along and into bringing my brand new Sanyo Xacti HD1000 video camera with me.

The trip was a hoot. Drive five hours, arrive at a motel about 20 minutes outside of town late that night, catch a few Z's, crawl out of bed at 2:00AM and have a tasty good old American-style breakfast at 3:00AM, slowly find a place to park our car amongst the probably thousands of other vehicles sprinkled throughout park-n-ride lots in the area (we ended up at the high school), and then pile into school buses to ride to the famous Gobbler's Knob.

I have no trouble believing that there were 20,000 people or more present for the 122nd Ground Hog Day forecast by Punsultawney Phil (the nth, despite what some claim this ground being the self same one that started this all - sorry some things stretch the mind too much). It's why I never could see Phil himself, but we had a blast anyway. This really is a massive mid-winter party and though you no doubt have a better view sitting at home watching on TV that totally leaves you out in the cold as far as capturing the wonderful feel of this spectacular spectacle.

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