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Tues. June 11th: Checking Out Butler

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<– Day 38 – Mon. June 10th: Trains and Planes | Trip Overview | Day 40 – Wed. June 12th: A Collection Worthy of a Kaiser –>

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My partner-in-crime had a migraine in the morning, so I had to photograph myself. I came, I saw, I photographed!

On Tuesday we did a short tour of Butler then drove to Monroeville, Pennsylvania.

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Tuesday June 11th’s drive from Butler to Monroeville, Pennsylvania.

On Tuesday morning, we woke up at the crack of 9am and were out the door by 10. Our breakfast stop was the CHOP SHOP. If you are in Butler, I can highly recommend the place (check out the menu). My prime rib wrap was great. Ann’s Lamb wrap (very thinly sliced lamb with feta and more) was especially good, but couldn’t eat it all, so she shared half her wrap with me … yum!

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2013-06-11-chop-shop-bulter-pa1After breakfast, Ann came down with a migraine, so I took her back to the motel room to rest. Meanwhile, I took care of a personal task:  locate and photograph the Bantam Factory Marker, one of those holy jeep grail items I can now tick off my list. The marker is at 662 Hansen Ave, Butler, PA and you can see the sign using Google’s street view.

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I swung back to the motel and found Ann feeling better, so we our next stop was Cooper Lake.

Next, I wanted to visit Cooper Lake, where the Bantam Festival is being held, It had rained a great deal and, since we are camping, I wanted to see if the rain had made a mess of things. When we arrived at the campground, we saw that artificial fences and gates had been erected that made accessing the camp site (amphitheater C) impossible. However, the ground looked pretty firm. I saw no obvious muddy areas. So, as long as the area doesn’t get too hammered by the next series of storms.

When we left Cooper Lake, SIRI misguided us past McConnell Mills State Park. We still aren’t sure why she picked the road she did, but it’s a beautiful park with a great old mill and a covered bridge. It’s just a few minutes away from the Bantam Fest location and might make a nice detour for people.

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The Mill (nice to see the sun come out just in time for pictures!)

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The nearby covered bridge.

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As you can see, it’s a beautiful location.

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Us. Note: whenever you see us in a picture, you can be assured that I have set the timer and then sprinted over to the spot next to Ann.

As we were taking photos, we looked down into the river and spotted a den of snakes!!

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Me trying to photograph snakes. We spotted around 10 of them.

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A few of the snakes.

After the mill, we left for  Monroeville, Pennsylvania, where we will spend Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Thursday we’ll drive to the Heinz History Center in the morning before we head for some dinner in Canton, Ohio, and to pick up the books I’ve ordered.

<– Day 38 – Mon. June 10th: Trains and Planes | Trip Overview | Day 40 – Wed. June 12th: A Collection Worthy of a Kaiser –>

 

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