Brewers vs. Nationals in Washington D.C.

As you can see by the picture on the left, Punxsutawney's main street is like any other main street in every other small town in the USA. That didn't stop it from being awesome though. I could walk to downtown Milwaukee from my apartment, and aside from Afterglow I don't get to hang out in small towns, so I treasure the moments when I do get to do that. Because of the groundhog's Winter prediction, Punxsutawney calls itself The Weather Capital of the World. This may or may not be true, but I don't see any other cities in the world calling them out on it and making a challenge for that noble title.

Groundhog Day with Bill Murray is one of our favorite movies of all time. Even though it was filmed in Woodstock, Illinois and not in Punxsutawney, we figured that as long as we were close, we had to go visit the city where Phil the Groundhog actually lives. So when we decided that we were going to do it, I booked a hotel online because we would be getting into that area kind of late. We ended up staying at a Super 8 in Brookville, PA which is right along I-80 and 20 miles North of Punxsutawney. D.C. had been pretty good to us over the last few days, but I had a feeling that the small town charm of Punxsutawney was just what we needed to end this trip on a very good note.

The city of Punxsutawney was exactly like you would expect a small town to be. The people there were super nice. Obviously they get a lot of tourists passing through because of the groundhog. Kevin and I decided to pay tribute to our favorite movie by referencing said movie in the Visitors Register. Do you think anyone else does that?

The Super 8 was exactly like you would expect it to be. But it was great because all we needed was a place to sleep for the night. I still had some booze left over, and somehow I had managed to hold on to this bottle of champagne for the entire weekend. I had been waiting for a reason to open it. Seeing Phil tomorrow was that reason.

This shop was one of many that sold Groundhog related merchandise. It seems kind of funny to base an entire town around an event that only happens one day a year, but when that day is Groundhog Day, you milk the shit out of it. It's all you have to bring people in. The shopworkers said we could poke around as long as we liked and that we could try stuff on, so I immediately put a groundhog hat on my head. There was some cool stuff there, like a Bill Murray autographed groundhog flag. So far Punxsutawney was exactly as I thought it would be, even if the movie over hyped it.

There was some groundhog merchandise that I could never envision people paying money for and then using later on, but I've learned throughout my travels to never say never. People buy all sorts of stupid stuff. Like someone has bought and will buy the groundhog hat that Kevin is wearing in this picture. Who does that? Can you imagine waiting for the bus next to someone wearing that in the Winter? Or how about those groundhog claws/gloves? I know it's funny to try them on for a picture, but who in the hell buys this crap? Right now I wish that I did...