Samuel Justus Trail

Look how smooth this trail is! Perfect.

Biked 6 miles. yay go us.

So Friday was the pick of the litter as far as weather goes. We took the bikes and caught the Samuel Justus trail in Oil City, at the Marina landing.

This is an excellent trail for biking or walking, well surfaced, and it runs along the Allegheny River.

If we'd have gone a couple more miles, we would've gotten to Franklin. Definitely doable, especially if we reward ourselves at Cafe Bossa Nova.

John is a train fanatic but also fascinated with the history of the oil-era. There are a lot of reminders of all the drilling.

We found a huge barrel right off the trail. You can judge the size compared to him. We just saw a program on coral snakes. I warned him to be careful messing with that underbrush.

In other Oil City News, we got the grass cut moments before it rained, so not a lot of other outdoor activity at Chez Phillippi.  Stay tuned, we got the exterior paint so look for money shots soon. (weather permitting.)

Oil barrel from the refinery days, John is fascinated.

Love the outdoors.

Oil Creek State Park

The last time we were at Oil Creek State Park, there was snow. This time, it was sunny and hitting the upper 60's.  As you can see, there used to be RR tracks running through here. So much of this area had extensive railroad tracks from the oil days, but many have been transformed into fantastic paths through pristine parks. If you look carefully, you can see some derricks through the bridge. For the Canton readers - the name on them is Belden and Blake.




How can you resist this? The paths are paved and great for bikes, which we'll try the next time. This time, Mr. Rhett Butler stepped out with us. John wisely read the warnings about not handling the snakes, which are not poisonous, but do bite.
As if.

There are some leftovers from the oil era, which is really pretty interesting. It's hard for me to imagine this area covered in derricks and stripped of trees. It's so incredibly beautiful. Rhett! Don't look for snakes, they bite!

Gratuitous picture of Oil Creek Park and one of me.

You can see the quality of that path - great for bikes and walking.

March Madness

It's been three weeks since I've made it over to Oil City. The weather's been lovely, but I had some commitments here in Ohio. John made an emergency pierogi run last week and also took our bikes over. 

Venango County is greening up. Coming north on Rt. 8 there was a huge difference in the trees and shrubs. Friday was the pick of the weekend, weather-wise. Sunny and mid- 70's. After unloading the car and Rhett Butler I did a quick mow of the lawn (green!) and we headed up to Two Mile Run Park with Rhett Butler.

Along the way, I realized I forgot the camera. In Ohio. So, I'm poaching pictures from their website.www.twomilerun.net/ Two Mile Run is 6 miles from Oil City and has a gorgeous lake. There were a couple people fishing from the shore, some in boats and a couple kayakers. The young man in the office was super helpful about fishing licenses, and gave us a map of the trails. This park also has the Observatory, and once a month the Oil Region Astronomical Society has full moon walks. Excited about this! 

Anyway, it was a beautiful afternoon - sunny, smelled like spring and we got a little walking through part of a trail. It wasn't this green, but close enough. And spotless!  Venango County has the most beautiful, well-kept, clean parks I've ever seen. Need a nature fix? Come to Oil City and Venango County. 

Saturday was a wash-out - literally. It poured, so we headed to Wal Mart for Rhett food, batteries and a couple solar lights for the back. We checked out the fishing poles, but decided we need some research on this. I was drawn to the fancy lures - Hair Bling! - but decided I'd hurt myself with the hook trying to get it to work. We stopped at Cranberry Mall where the 4-H kids had some great displays - loved the miniature horse ( PUNKIN!!!) and the goats and rabbits. 

We wrapped up the weekend with an Ohio State Victory! Yay! Thad Motta, a tip of the hat, sir. Go Bucks. 

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