Volant, PA Day Trip

Well, The Cackle got together and headed out of Erie (or rather Edinboro) at about 8:00 AM last Saturday headed to Volant, PA. If you are a shopper and have never been, you are in for a treat. Volant, PA is located just west of Grove City and is about an hour and 20 minutes drive out of Erie. It is a unique village of quaint shops and restaurants located on Route 208 with an old-fashioned main street nestled in the rolling hills of scenic western Pennsylvania Amish country.

OUR DESTINATION
Volant is located on Neshannock Creek and the Volant Mill, built in 1812, sits in the heart of the borough. After having closed its doors in the early 1960s, the mill reopened as a country gift and antique store in 1984. Bolstered by the success of that venture, other shops soon opened along Main Street. Today, there are many shops of all varieties in this once sleepy little town. You can check out the shops and events on their website: http://www.volantshops.com/

OUR TRIP
We stopped at Eat 'N Park in Grove City for breakfast and coffee before heading over to Volant. The very nice waitress was probably glad to see our very rambunctious backs! Our trip coincided with Volant's Spring Garden Party / Tea Party. Along with the traveling tea party, they had a master gardener and columnist come in to answer questions in the afternoon. The weather was beautiful, and we all had a great time browsing. The shops are converted older homes and the architecture was a delight to see. We arrived at 10:30 AM and shopped until about 3 PM. We did not get to go in all the shops, because we were strolling leisurely through. We may have to schedule another trip to see the rest of the shops we did not get to see. I am hearing that the dumpling house offers must-have blueberry dumplings, but I did not get to verify this information on this trip.

After leaving Volant, we headed over to Bruno's Fine Jewelry store (1015 Leesburg Station Road, Springfield Falls, PA 16137 - 800-559-5290). The property was purchased about 3 years ago and the building sits above the newly rediscovered ruins of a 19th century iron furnace. Bruno's is famous for turning the slag found at the site of the iron furnace ruins into "Iron Master's Gems". These hand-carved pieces of slag are set in gold and are truly works of art. There is a path outside the store leading to the creek and the iron furnace ruins. We were invited to venture down and take pictures of the Springfield Falls waterfall that the iron furnace ruins sits at the bottom of. As long as we did not disturb the archeological dig, we were welcome to get a closer look.

Before leaving the area, we popped around the corner and ventured down Falls Road just a bit and parked near the spring house. Local residents go here to fill their empty water bottles with fresh spring water. Across the street, is Pennsylvania Game Lands, on which Springfield Falls resides. Everyone is welcome to hike (and hunt in season) this land. We ventured to the top of the falls, which is only a short distance off the road, and snapped a few more pictures. We filled our water bottles at the spring house and headed out to Hermitage.

What's in Hermitage? Well, Bonworth, of course. And Mom needed a fix! (Me too...lol) We stopped at the Shenango Valley Mall and shopped a bit at Bonworth. By now, everyone was hungry again, so we ate dinner at Bob Evans, then swooped into Pat Catan's before heading home.

And a good time was had by all!

ADDITIONAL POINTS OF INTEREST IN THE AREA
In addition to the Main Street shops, there are a few other attractions in the area.

The Barns
"The Barns" sit just outside of downtown Volant on Route 168 (Anderson's In the Barns, 4666 Pennsylvania 168, Volant, PA 16156 - 724-533-2600), and have a variety of area rugs and country gifts.

Cheese House
There is a cheese house (Rts 18 & 208, New Wilmington , PA 16142 - 724-946-8558) that sells "more than just cheese". They offer a variety of foods and crafts.

Iron Bridge Inn
I am told that the Iron Bridge Inn (1438 Perry Highway, Mercer, PA 16137‎ - 724-748-3626) is famous for their prime rib, and if you are in the neighborhood, you should stop in and try it. I am definitely putting that on my To Do list!

Welcome!

First, let me tell you a little about me and why I started this blog.

I declared the year 2010 to be "The Year of Day Trips". I started planning the first outing in February, hoping that it would somehow usher Spring in earlier than usual. After another hard Erie winter, I really needed to "Think Spring" or go insane. Since I am an avid amateur photographer, I am always on the look out for new and interesting places and subjects, so day trips would be a perfect way to discover new things.

I started this blog to document these day trips. My hope is that someone else will find this information useful in planning their own day trips in and around Erie, Pa.

Well, who better to share these trip with than friends and family? So the first planned outing was Volant, PA with my mother, 2 aunts, my sister and a cousin. They have now been collectively dubbed "The Cackle" (more on that later). This group is a really a lot of fun. We are a little bit crazy, maybe a little bit loud, and ALWAYS a hoot!