Tea Time with Melody Q: October Coolspring Expo Recap Day 2

Thursday, October 28, 2021

October Coolspring Expo Recap Day 2

Saying Hello to Friends

Coolspring is south of Brookville and north of Punxsutawney. Have you heard of Punxsutawney? I bet you have at least in February. Or maybe you've seen a certain movie. (giggles) If you have followed our blog for some time then you definitely have. We've teamed up with Flo and the Say Hello to My Little Friends crew to find all the Phantastic Phil statues throughout Punxsutawney. Today was the day to, perhaps, finish our quest.

Flo found out there were 9 new statues besides the one we still hadn't located at the IUP campus. Was it out for cleaning or re-sponsored, repainted, and relocated? The plan included a fun side trip, but let's get to it.

After a hearty breakfast and some housekeeping we got the text from Flo and headed to the gate. We didn't have to wait long before we climbed into her car and the four of us headed south to Punxsutawney. First stop of the day...Gobbler's Knob! Home of the annual Groundhog Day festivities! Maritza and I chatted and laughed as Flo and Xyra traded GPS stories. We laughed harder when it took us to a walking path instead of to the actual visitor's center. But we're resourceful and found our way. Then the exploring started!

Gobbler's Knob!

Photo dump time!

Entrance

Heading to center stage.

Phil? Are you home?

Friends, Romans, Groundhogs...we come to see where it all happens in February. It's much greener now. (giggles)

Off to the Visitor's Center...cool inlay.

Fun artifacts about the holiday and the movie.

Super fun woman. Marcy the General Manager of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. She was a lot of fun to talk to about Gobbler's Knob and Phil and our quest.

In the one room the artist who paints the statues created a mural of a typical February 2, Groundhog Day, festival. We had fun in that room.

On to the Quest!

This is the tricky part. In Pennsylvania towns were created around cowpaths and access to mills and fields and such. Roads are twisty and some have many name changes. We got out the map and looked it over. Cool the first one we want should be on our way back into town from Gobbler's Knob. Um, yes and no. So we drove until we found our first new statue to use as a point of reference! By the time we found Officer Phil & Fury we were laughing so hard we thought the officer in the parking lot might think we were up to no good.

Now we were cooking! Next stop Farmer Phil at the Farmer's National Bank.

And Sgt. Major Phil at the VFW

They have the story of the fallen veteran who inspired this statue in the window, so we paused for a moment of silence.

Back to square one with the map. Where do we go from here? Well, we know where the Wizard of weather is so...back that direction and we glimpsed the finger of You Can't Keep a Good Phil Down.

Now that we had our Phil "goggles" on we decided to go back looking for East End Phil. We spotted this one while looking across a parking lot and through some trees. Then found a route to the park.