On the Road Again with Merle

[BigKurtHaze]

Really been enjoying the posts, Carl. My maternal grandparents were from around your neck of the woods, retired in Poland, Ohio.

I have a very vivid memory of those carp, I must have been 8 or so when my grandpa took me to feed them.

 

[Rookie82]

Really been enjoying the posts, Carl. My maternal grandparents were from around your neck of the woods, retired in Poland, Ohio.

I have a very vivid memory of those carp, I must have been 8 or so when my grandpa took me to feed them.

Yes, that's not too far away. It's funny how little has changed over so much time for this attraction.

 

[Jack Black]

This was a treat for Merle, probably the highlight of his trip to PA so far. I took Merle out to see the Pymatuning Reservoir. This is a nice man-made lake on land that was previously a very large swamp, covering both sides of the Ohio/Pennsylvania state line. It is a quiet scenic area, but the main attraction is the spillway, which connects the upper portion of the lake to the lower main portion.

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The spillway is advertised as “Where the Ducks Walk on the Fish!” and it is actually true. It is one of the top 5 biggest attractions in all of Pennsylvania, and thousands of people come year round to feed the fish. The carp have been fed stale bread by tourists for over 80 years, and the fish have learned to pack in and fight for scraps of bread. They are so thick with fish, that the ducks and geese have to walk across the backs of the fish to try and get their own piece of bread.

It's hard to really experience this without seeing it for yourself. Big ugly carp covering every inch of the surface of the water. The sound of thousands of fish sucking for bread, barely even getting under water long enough to breathe, and then back again. Kids laughing and throwing bread as far as they can. Ducks and geese pooping on tourists without care.

I had to take precautions that Merle didn’t jump out of my hands, as I’m sure he would be in the belly of a giant carp faster than you could blink your eye.

As a kid, my parents would stop at all the grocery stores and ask for any expired stale bread. Then we would head out to the spillway with a truck load of bread, and spend an afternoon chucking it high into the air before it plummeted down into the writhing mass of fish scales and ugly yellow lips. Now they opened a bread stand at the parking area where you can buy a loaf of stale bread for a dollar.

Usually there is water pouring over the concrete spillway, but with such little rainfall this summer that isn't occuring. It actually is nice and quieter this way, so you can hear the fish better in my video.

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Incredible!

 

[btb01]

This was a treat for Merle, probably the highlight of his trip to PA so far. I took Merle out to see the Pymatuning Reservoir. This is a nice man-made lake on land that was previously a very large swamp, covering both sides of the Ohio/Pennsylvania state line. It is a quiet scenic area, but the main attraction is the spillway, which connects the upper portion of the lake to the lower main portion.

View attachment 1911239

The spillway is advertised as “Where the Ducks Walk on the Fish!” and it is actually true. It is one of the top 5 biggest attractions in all of Pennsylvania, and thousands of people come year round to feed the fish. The carp have been fed stale bread by tourists for over 80 years, and the fish have learned to pack in and fight for scraps of bread. They are so thick with fish, that the ducks and geese have to walk across the backs of the fish to try and get their own piece of bread.

It's hard to really experience this without seeing it for yourself. Big ugly carp covering every inch of the surface of the water. The sound of thousands of fish sucking for bread, barely even getting under water long enough to breathe, and then back again. Kids laughing and throwing bread as far as they can. Ducks and geese pooping on tourists without care.

I had to take precautions that Merle didn’t jump out of my hands, as I’m sure he would be in the belly of a giant carp faster than you could blink your eye.

As a kid, my parents would stop at all the grocery stores and ask for any expired stale bread. Then we would head out to the spillway with a truck load of bread, and spend an afternoon chucking it high into the air before it plummeted down into the writhing mass of fish scales and ugly yellow lips. Now they opened a bread stand at the parking area where you can buy a loaf of stale bread for a dollar.

Usually there is water pouring over the concrete spillway, but with such little rainfall this summer that isn't occuring. It actually is nice and quieter this way, so you can hear the fish better in my video.

View attachment 1911252View attachment 1911253View attachment 1911254View attachment 1911255

Ha! That’s really something. I remember at some of the busy marinas on the lake where I grew up in Arkansas you would get a lot of carp swimming around the docks for a free meal, but nothing like that!

 

[Rookie82]

It was good timing for Merle to visit when he did. Yesterday Merle was treated with a visit to the Crawford County Fair, which has been run continuously since 1945 (except for Covid shutdown in 2020). This is the largest agricultural fair held anywhere in the Eastern US.

Among normal fair attractions of games, concessions, and rides, it also has a large amount of homeshow buildings for the public to enter for judging of produce, baked goods, crafts, etc. There also is a huge number of barns for housing all the animals used for showing and competing. And there is a grandstand used for main events like the Demolition Derby, Truck/Tractor Pulls, horse racing and equestrian events, and music concerts.

The fairgrounds themselves occupy around 70 acres, with an additional 50 acres used for parking. During the week there are a lot of 4H and FFA showing, and auctions to buy animals. A lot of local restaurants come to purchase beef and pork directly from the farmers.

This is the north end of the grounds where a majority of the show arenas and livestock barns are located. Merle really loves the smell of fresh manure!



Here is Merle with some of the livestock. The sheep/goats are always entertaining.

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[Rookie82]

Maybe I’m strange, but I always enjoyed the smell of cattle barns. Probably from too many years helping uncles and cousins on the farm.



I have to say, one of my favorites is always the draft horses. Such gentle giants. 8 feet tall and hooves the size of watermelons!



Of course the little mini ponies need some love too. Merle took a fancy to this one.

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[Rookie82]

Bacon anyone?



Sadly no poultry allowed this year due to a wild bird flu that’s been spreading around. But the rabbit barn was fully loaded.



Here are a few of the 3 midways at the fair.

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[Rookie82]

This is the Homeshow Midway, which also includes booths set up from a lot of local businesses. Many give out coupons at the fair that you can use throughout the year. Everything from tombstone designs, to water softeners, to churches bible school classes, to roofing and gutters, to motorhomes, and even the local John Deere dealer giving out incentives to buy farm implements.



This is underneath the grandstands, where a lot of local clubs sell raffle tickets, and give out freebies to the kids.



Since I was about 11, my mother and step-father bought a building on the fairgrounds and sold various different fair foods, but the mainstay was homemade curly fries. His last name was Curley, so it was a natural fit. I was allowed to run free around the fair every day from 11am-5, but then helped out in the food stand from 5-close during the after-work rush of crowds. I may have hated it at the time, but looking back it gives a lot of good memories and taught me a good work ethic.

When my step-father passed away, my youngest step-brother picked up the reigns and runs the stand now. They go through around 2000 pounds of potatoes in 7 days, along with all the other types of food they offer (hot sausage, cheeseburgers, rootbeer floats, BBQ pulled pork, etc.)



After a long day, Merle helped cut the wristband off my arm, and we crawled into bed.

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[RLB0414]

Bacon anyone?

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Sadly no poultry allowed this year due to a wild bird flu that’s been spreading around. But the rabbit barn was fully loaded.

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Here are a few of the 3 midways at the fair.

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Your fair grounds look like those in Monroe County, Michigan.

 

[RLB0414]

Maybe I’m strange, but I always enjoyed the smell of cattle barns. Probably from too many years helping uncles and cousins on the farm.

View attachment 1912608View attachment 1912609

I have to say, one of my favorites is always the draft horses. Such gentle giants. 8 feet tall and hooves the size of watermelons!

View attachment 1912610

Of course the little mini ponies need some love too. Merle took a fancy to this one.

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Nothing strange. Smell of hard work and a simpler, maybe easier time. I too, enjoy the cattle and horse barns at the fair.

This is the Homeshow Midway, which also includes booths set up from a lot of local businesses. Many give out coupons at the fair that you can use throughout the year. Everything from tombstone designs, to water softeners, to churches bible school classes, to roofing and gutters, to motorhomes, and even the local John Deere dealer giving out incentives to buy farm implements.

View attachment 1912618

This is underneath the grandstands, where a lot of local clubs sell raffle tickets, and give out freebies to the kids.

View attachment 1912619

Since I was about 11, my mother and step-father bought a building on the fairgrounds and sold various different fair foods, but the mainstay was homemade curly fries. His last name was Curley, so it was a natural fit. I was allowed to run free around the fair every day from 11am-5, but then helped out in the food stand from 5-close during the after-work rush of crowds. I may have hated it at the time, but looking back it gives a lot of good memories and taught me a good work ethic.

When my step-father passed away, my youngest step-brother picked up the reigns and runs the stand now. They go through around 2000 pounds of potatoes in 7 days, along with all the other types of food they offer (hot sausage, cheeseburgers, rootbeer floats, BBQ pulled pork, etc.)

View attachment 1912620

After a long day, Merle helped cut the wristband off my arm, and we crawled into bed.

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Always loved fair food. Some is healthy, some not so much. Our local fair has food tents from several of the local churches. Always get a good, hearty, well priced meal under one of these tents

 

[Rookie82]

Always loved fair food. Some is healthy, some not so much. Our local fair has food tents from several of the local churches. Always get a good, hearty, well priced meal under one of these tents

Thanks RLB. Yes sounds familiar. There is a small food building that all the Methodist churches in the county run together as a group, and all the church ladies make pies of all sorts that they donate, and you can buy a slice of any variety of pie that they have. It usually has a line out the door non-stop for the entire week.

 

[Rookie82]

For those who have been to this area of Pennsylvania, or have come to a GEC Rendezvous, I think you will like this one.

Today was exciting. Merle was homesick, and so we had to go back to the GEC factory for a quick drive past. Since it was Sunday hours, we couldn’t take a factory tour, but it still put him into good spirits just seeing his old stomping grounds.



Even though Merle hails from Titusville, he doesn’t know much about the history of the area. I took him on a nickel tour to get him acquainted with his roots.

We started at the Drake Well Museum. Drake Well was the first successful commercial oil well drilled in the world, and it fostered the modern day oil boom. Before that, whale oil was the primary source of oil used in the world. In 1859, Edwin Drake drilled along the banks of Oil Creek and struck oil at 69 feet, causing an oil gusher. At it’s peak he was filling 20 barrels of oil per day. Within 2 years the well was dry, partly due to the fact that 1000’s of other wells had been set up around the area, draining the shallow oil reservoir.

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[Rookie82]

But just like land rushes, and gold rushes, the humans desire for easy money here sparked an oil rush. The town of Titusville exploded, and the oil industry funded new technology that was being invented daily. Piping, drill bits, pumps, and valves all were redesigned and perfected in the span of only a few months. Titusville’s population rose from 250 to over 10,000 within 5 years. Along with the oil workers came a need for hotels, restaurants, hardware stores, mercantiles, and teamsters. Schools and churches soon followed. Immediately after that, nearby oil boom towns sprang up as well. Oil City, Petroleum Center, and Pithole all had oil derricks as far as the eye could see in every direction. At the peak this area was producing 10 million barrels of oil per year. And there were 8 crude oil refineries set up to process all the oil.

With oil everywhere, everything was polluted. Nobody could drink any of the water. Livestock and pets died frequently. A majority of the town burned to the ground more than once. All the hills were stripped of forest, making room to put up more derricks, and using the lumber for building supplies.

At that time, there were more millionaires per capita in Titusville than anywhere else in the entire world. The streets of Titusville are lined with huge 4 story Victorian era mansions, although they are now mostly subdivided into 8-10 rental apartments in each. ¾ of those who sought fortune drilling for oil ended up bankrupt. By 1890’s the PA oil boom was over, and the Texas oil boom took over, followed by California.

Here are just a few of the giant houses when driving down Main Street.

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[Rookie82]

Another interesting oil boom town was nearby Pithole City. Although now all that remains is a vacant hay field, it was at one time the 3rd largest city in Pennsylvania behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The landowner struck oil there in January 1865 and it was a forceful geyser of oil. Word traveled fast, and nearly overnight there were hotels and businesses being built. By October the property that started with 2 oil workers now had a population of 15,000. The bustling city had over 50 hotels built in the span of only 5 months. All the derricks in the Pithole area were pumping out 5,000 barrels of oil per day, which were hauled away by teamsters to railroad depots. After that steam powered pumps pushed oil through pipelines directly to Oil City to be refined. The population peaked after only 1 year at over 25,000 people. But too much oil too quickly hurt the value, and by October 1866 the price dropped from $10 per barrel to 10 cents per barrel. The population started to decline, and by 1877 the area was vacant, the buildings removed, and the land sold to a local farmer.

Here is a photo of Pithole City from the boom days.

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It now is a Pennsylvania Historical Location, and they offer guided tours. Although it is just an empty hay field, so I prefer to skip the tour and just read about the history on the internet. I’m sure Merle was happy to skip the tour as well.

More adventures to come tomorrow!

 

[JohnDF]

It's fun to see Merle go full circle.

 

[Rookie82]

For today's post, we made a little trip up to Lake Erie. Specifically, we visited Presque Isle, which is a long peninsula that wraps around the harbor of Erie, PA. It creates a natural barrier around the city, which I’m sure is why the city was founded at that location.

Although Lake Erie is not the smallest of the Great Lakes, it is the shallowest, averaging about 63 feet deep. Because it is shallower, it is prone to having tremendous waves that build quickly from even slight breezes. I’ve come to the lake before on windy days to watch 15-20 foot waves breaking in onto the beaches. Also because the lake it is shallower, it warms and freezes quickly compared to the other lakes, which creates unique weather patterns around it. My wife is from Buffalo, NY and she can attest to the lake-effect snow storms they can get!

Here is a photo of the beaches, which get quite a lot of activity during the summer months. And a photo of Merle on one of the less used beaches. Looking north 34 miles, past the horizon, somewhere is the Canadian shoreline.



The Presque Isle peninsula is a PA State Park, so the entire area is protected. There is no construction there, other than a few park buildings, a lighthouse, and an environmental research center. The whole area is over 3000 acres, and it has public beaches, natural trails, boat launches, and is famed for bird watching.



Here is a view looking back across the bay at the shoreline of the city of Erie, PA.

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[Rookie82]

From there we were lucky enough to attend the Erie Tall Ships festival that happened to be going on at the Erie Maritime Museum. This is a yearly festival that attracts a fleet of historic sailing vessels, and allows the public to see them up close. The main attraction is the flagship US Brig Niagara, which is a warship from the War of 1812, and fought (and won) in the Battle of Lake Erie. It was fully restored/rebuilt and relaunched in 1988, and it is permanently docked year round here in Erie.

Merle was not allowed past security, but I managed to sneak him through anyways. But the ships were so crowded it was impossible to get nice photos of them. They also had large sections tarped over so that the guests didn’t get too hot, but I think it took away from the authenticity. Here is a shot of the Niagara sailing that I found on the internet, along with my photos.

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[Rookie82]

There were various other historical ships docked around the area also. I got some photos of them as well.



This is the “Trinidad”, a replica of a 15th century Spanish square sail style ship. Can’t you all just picture meako ordering scalawags around while cursing the Porchenberg landlubbers?

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[Rookie82]

One last attraction. Has anyone here saw the world’s largest rubber ducky? Merle has!!!



After leaving the festival, we stopped at the marina for a late lunch at The Sloppy Duck Saloon. It’s a good place to stop in for a quick meal, nothing extravagant. This is a tasty piece of mahi mahi fish.



More adventures to come tomorrow!

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[Rookie82]

Here is a view looking back across the bay at the shoreline of the city of Erie, PA.

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If you guys look close, you'll notice you can see the giant Rubber Ducky from my view looking across the bay.