Johnstown, Pennsylvania
June 3–5, 2022
June 3–5, 2022
This isn’t a thing people often say, but Johnstown was one of the absolute highlights of my long adventure. I got to visit my old friend Shannon Sapolich, who’s currently back at her childhood home, babysitting her incredibly rad nephew, Phoenix, and running her ever-growing rescue farm of random, fabulous animals. Yes, there are a zillion pictures of Goober the peacock here, but have you ever hung out with a peacock?! You’d take a zillion photos too. Goober had some strong opinions about my decision to add air to my bike tires, and as you can see from the progression of some photos, I got a good peck on the finger at one point. (Or he might just have been trying to let me know my damned thumb was on the lens.)
Mochi was especially taken with Hazel the Flemish Giant rabbit and Maggie the Syrian hamster, though he also spent plenty of time pestering/playing with the pack of delightful dogs: Lucky, Windsor, Jixer, Templeton, and Moline (in order of appearance in the photos below). There also are more rabbits, guinea pigs, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, cats, horses, and probably others I’m forgetting. It’s magnificent! I got to hold a duckling, collect five duck eggs that one of the ladies had stashed under a small tree, pet a Sebastopol goose, snuggle a guinea pig, and watch Phoenix cruise around the property on one of his tractors. (The kid is seven years old and, like I said, rad as hell. He wears his hair long, giving him the air of a tiny Viking metalhead.)
On the Saturday of my visit, Shannon, her sister Sasha, Sasha’s boyfriend Chris, and I took a 25-mile bike ride on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail (which we apparently could have taken all the way from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC!). The trail was glorious, including the long, chilly, dark Big Savage Tunnel, though our fun was dampened by the discovery of a dying songbird and a litter of apparently motherless, almost definitely rabid baby skunks. Those are sad experiences for almost anyone, but for an animal rescuer like Shannon it was nearly unbearable. Why all the death, GAP Trail?
I got to pay a visit to The Phoenix, the family’s restaurant downtown, which felt like a taste of old times. Shannon and I met at CTY (Center for Talented Youth—essentially, nerd camp) when I was 15 and she was 14, and we bonded nearly instantly. When I was 18, I went down to her family home for a visit and ended up staying for months, getting a job at a court reporting agency in Johnstown and sleeping in the little loft above Shannon’s bedroom. Her family is uncommonly welcoming and takes in all kinds of strays, human and animal.
On Sunday, before I hit the road again, we went to Quemahoning Reservoir to lie out In the sun, eat snacks, and ride around on paddleboards. On the way, we went (for the second time in two days) to a brand new coffee shop called Café Dodie. Their specialty drinks are genius, and I wish I could have an iced Dodie Signature latte every single day. The owners seem like two of the sweetest human beings on earth, and I hope their new business becomes the grand success it deserves to be.
I’ll miss all my human and animal buddies in Johnstown, but I needn’t worry—I know I’ll be back!
Mochi was especially taken with Hazel the Flemish Giant rabbit and Maggie the Syrian hamster, though he also spent plenty of time pestering/playing with the pack of delightful dogs: Lucky, Windsor, Jixer, Templeton, and Moline (in order of appearance in the photos below). There also are more rabbits, guinea pigs, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, cats, horses, and probably others I’m forgetting. It’s magnificent! I got to hold a duckling, collect five duck eggs that one of the ladies had stashed under a small tree, pet a Sebastopol goose, snuggle a guinea pig, and watch Phoenix cruise around the property on one of his tractors. (The kid is seven years old and, like I said, rad as hell. He wears his hair long, giving him the air of a tiny Viking metalhead.)
On the Saturday of my visit, Shannon, her sister Sasha, Sasha’s boyfriend Chris, and I took a 25-mile bike ride on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail (which we apparently could have taken all the way from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC!). The trail was glorious, including the long, chilly, dark Big Savage Tunnel, though our fun was dampened by the discovery of a dying songbird and a litter of apparently motherless, almost definitely rabid baby skunks. Those are sad experiences for almost anyone, but for an animal rescuer like Shannon it was nearly unbearable. Why all the death, GAP Trail?
I got to pay a visit to The Phoenix, the family’s restaurant downtown, which felt like a taste of old times. Shannon and I met at CTY (Center for Talented Youth—essentially, nerd camp) when I was 15 and she was 14, and we bonded nearly instantly. When I was 18, I went down to her family home for a visit and ended up staying for months, getting a job at a court reporting agency in Johnstown and sleeping in the little loft above Shannon’s bedroom. Her family is uncommonly welcoming and takes in all kinds of strays, human and animal.
On Sunday, before I hit the road again, we went to Quemahoning Reservoir to lie out In the sun, eat snacks, and ride around on paddleboards. On the way, we went (for the second time in two days) to a brand new coffee shop called Café Dodie. Their specialty drinks are genius, and I wish I could have an iced Dodie Signature latte every single day. The owners seem like two of the sweetest human beings on earth, and I hope their new business becomes the grand success it deserves to be.
I’ll miss all my human and animal buddies in Johnstown, but I needn’t worry—I know I’ll be back!
