The Christmas Eve Cruise- 2020

 

The Christmas Eve Cruise-2020

                The weather forecast was rather ominous; rain most of the day and then dropping temperatures leading into snowfall. The weather gurus were warning about travel problems and slippery roads. The bad conditions were due to start around 7 in the morning.

                Ann Marie and I had been thinking about taking a drive. Even though it might be a miserable day, we thought it would be nice to get out of the house for awhile and take a cruise in the car. We could do that and still remain “safe”. We decided to head north to the town of Franklin.

                The morning dawned with rain falling. The roads were wet but the temperatures were in the mid-40’s. The weather prognosticators had pushed the freezing temperatures and snow squalls back so things looked good for a drive. We were on the road by 9:30.

                In the second county we visited, Butler, we stopped to pick up a couple cups of coffee because we all know that a long drive always goes better with some hot coffee! The coffee was weak, I think there might have been some caffeine in it but I’m not really sure. It was served in a coffee cup so it must’ve been coffee...it was hot and it had a slight taste of coffee so I’m pretty sure that is what it was. (sigh)

                We stopped alongside the road about 8-10 miles out of Franklin to try and locate a Heron rookery. (also called a Heronry)  The last time we had been here it had been snowing, the road was covered and we turned around before we reached Franklin. We pulled over to try and find the tree covered with nests but we couldn’t see any more than 10-20 feet. Everything beyond was white. We didn’t stay long.

This year we were able to locate it. About 100 yards away from the road it almost looked as if the tree had flower blossoms on it. Dark objects sat near the ends of the limbs. With the binoculars we could see that they were bunches of sticks, nests hanging on the branches. There were no herons around. Most herons migrate to warmer climates during the winter. The tree has been their northern home for many years. Some of the older nests can be as large as four feet across and just as deep.

                After finding the rookery we continued into Franklin. The rain let up a bit giving us the opportunity to walk around the main part of town.

 We window shopped and got a couple cups of REAL coffee for the trip back. We had packed a couple sandwiches and ate them in the car. (Ham and cheese on 7 grain sour dough bread) We took Rt. 322 over to Brookville driving through Clarion on the way. A quick stop alongside the Clarion River to admire the fog gave us another chance to stretch our legs. The rain sent us back to the car quickly. In Brookville, we drove through the center of town but the rain kept us in the car.

Interestingly enough, Brookville is the county seat of Jefferson County. Franklin is the county seat of Venango County and Clarion is the county seat of Clarion County and to round it out, Butler is the county seat of Butler County. Our journey took us past Kittanning, the county seat of Armstrong County but we didn’t actually drive through it. We should have driven through Pittsburgh to add Allegheny County to the “County Seat” list. In all we passed through six counties on our journey.

                We nearly ran out of gas near Freeport. We had been watching the gas prices and the stations nearest to home were the cheapest. I just happened to look at the gas gauge and saw we had about 20 miles of gas left in the tank. A stop at the next gas station fixed that problem. Home was about 25 minutes away. We got back home around 3:30, the temperatures were still in the 40’s. The rain had increased but we were still snow free. We had traveled about 206 miles.

                It was five or six hours of watching the Pennsylvania scenery slip past our windows. The troubles of the world were left behind, just Ann Marie and me, warm and dry enjoying each other’s company. Listening to Christmas songs on the radio and sometimes singing along with em. What a nice way to spend Christmas Eve!