June 1, 2025 - Driving to Alaska
Punxsutawney
Here we go.  Alaska or bust!  The new van is filled up.  Not just with our stuff, but also from others who want us to transport it to Alaska.
   
Leaving Maryland and entering Pennsylvania.  Out first overnight stop:  Punxsutawney, home of the groundhog Phil.
   
And here we are, after a relatively short -- four hours -- and pleasant drive, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania where we are staying in the Barclay Bed and Breakfast.
   
The B&B is right off the Barclay town square, which is where I thought they filmed the movie Groundhog Day.  But it was immediately clear that this was not where they filmed the movie.
   
Walking around the town square.
   
 
   
But Barclay Square is the home of Punxsutawney Phil, and here he is!
   
Phil's burrow is on the edge of the Square.
   
 
   
 
   
The famous annual Groundhog Day celebration where Punxsutawney Phil makes his weather prediction every February is not at Barclay Square in town but a short distance out of town at a place called Gobbler Knob.  On the way out to Gobbler Knob we observed a rogue groundhog cross the street in front of us and go under a house.
   
The front gate to Gobbler's Knob.
   
Yay, Groundhog Day!
   
 
   
Here we are at Gobblers Knob which is deserted now.  But on February 2 this area is jammed.
   
The stage where the men of the "Inner Circle" pull Phil out of that stump, and Phil determines if he sees his shadow or not.  If he has, then there will be six more weeks of winter.   If not, then spring will be early.
   
 
   
The spectator area isn't as big as I had expected.  I have heard both good and bad about the event.  You have to arrive in Punxsutawney early.  Shuttle buses run from the town to Gobbler's Knob from 3am to 6am.  It's cold, I expect.  You stand, and wait until 7am when the ceremony starts.  My son-in-law attended one year and said it was one of the worst decisions he ever made.  But we talked to a couple at the visitors center who have been here a few times and they enjoy it.  They made it sounds like a party.  So who knows?
   

In the little visitor's center and gift store was this poster of the famous 1993 Bill Murray movie: Groundhog Day.   I was surprised to learn that the movie was actually filmed in Woodstock, Illinois which is 50 miles northwest of Chicago.  I have actually been to Woodstock, in 1979, before the movie was made, when my friend the Bro and I went there to visit his family; it was his hometown.

Jonah Goldberg wrote this great review on the movie Groundhog Day:  Link.  I encourage you to read it.  Here's a sample:
 
"Here’s a line you’ll either recognize or you won’t: “This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.” If you don’t recognize this little gem, you’ve either never seen Groundhog Day or you’re not a fan of what is, in my opinion, one of the best films of the last 40 years. As the day of the groundhog again approaches, it seems only fitting to celebrate what will almost undoubtedly join It’s a Wonderful Life in the pantheon of America’s most uplifting, morally serious, enjoyable, and timeless movies.

 
   
 
   
 
   
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