My wife, Rebecca, and I took a trip Gobbler’s Knob to celebrate Groundhog Day with Punxsutawney Phil back in 2014. It was a fantastic time. If you haven’t been before you should really check it out. What a fun time.
We arrived at 4:30 a.m. to a crowd of more than 10,000 already there and celebrating Punxsutawney Phil’s weather prognostications. There were people dancing, singing, getting warm by fires having a great time whether it was their first time or 21st time to see the Inner Circle wake Phil from his winter slumber to get the scoop on Phil’s forecast.
Phil predicted six more weeks of winter and Mother Nature made short time in backing up Phil’s prediction as it was snowing on the evening of Groundhog Day.
The crowd of 10,000 certainly swelled to 30,000 or more as the magic hour of 7:15 a.m. rolled around and Phil emerged from his winter home to stay he had seen his shadow on a clearly rainy and overcast day.
Members of the Inner Circle were all present with topcoats and top hats. They were dressed to impress as they coaxed Phil from his tree stump home and presented him to the cheers of the crowd.
Since parking is not permitted at Gobbler’s Knob except for handicapped individuals, we rode school buses from the local Wal-Mart to the Knob and then decided to walk back to town, with several thousand other people, to check out the events in downtown Punxsutawney.
After walking around town for a few hours checking out the local shops and the Punxsutawney Phil gift shops, we decided it would be best to ride a shuttle back to the Wal-Mart parking lot rather than walk to mile-and-a-half considering we were already pretty soaked at that point.
Boarding the shuttle to the Knob had been very organized. Getting the shuttle back to our parking area was much less structured and nearly a free-for-all until we got on the bus and found our driver was a pretty funny guy.
He made the short trip much more fun with playful banter about taking us to the high school rather than the Wal-Mart parking lot 100 all of us were needing to get to.
There was quite a bit of activity going on as folks celebrated the world’s most famous non-human weather prognosticator.
There were woodcrafters, artisans, food vendors, interactive craft stations, and a lot more to entertain visitors, mainly in Barclay Square, to the small Pennsylvania community that has the eyes of the world on it for a few days each year in early February.
Punxsutawney is a great little town that has fully embraced its most famous resident since 1886. The surrounding area has also embraced the fame as an economic boost to the community.
Clise's Cornucopia 