Taking the back way to Happy Valley
If you're off to PSU for football or something else, take another road and take time to stop and smell the cookies
.
By FRANK
BODANI
Daily Record/Sunday News
Updated: 08/01/2009 11:24:01 PM EDT
It's the
kind of diner where customers from across the room can tease the teenage
waitress about her speeding tickets.
It's more than a place for hamburgers, blue birch beer and hand-cut fries.
The old converted Texaco station with a couple of the original red Sky Chief gas pumps right outside the front door is part gathering place and part simple-food stopover on the way to and from a grander destination.
The 1950s-style Cruiser's Café pops up out of the farm fields along quirky, postcard-pretty Route 104 - along the most entertaining backroads en route to a Penn State football game.
For years, Nittany Lion fans had to decide whether to sit in traffic along two-lane, bottle-necked Route 322 on the way to State College or wind around country roads that at least offered the promise of steady travel.
Now, 322 is wider, freer and faster (for the most part) on game day - and much more sterile, bypassing nearly every small town between Harrisburg and Happy Valley.
But if you have a little more time, routes 104 and 45 provide a much greater payoff. From the diner to a wildlife park to a winery to fresh-baked cookies sold off a porch.
There are Amish buggies and signs that advertise, "laying hens 4 sale."
And, of course, plenty of fruit stands, farm markets and the Friday night ham-loaf supper at the Moose Lodge.
It would be a shame, then, to navigate along the Susquehanna River all the way to Route 104 only to zoom past everything on the way to the big game and back.
So here are some
of the more unusual, tourist-friendly stops along the way.
Cruiser's Café
It used to be the only gas station around.
Now, people come because they say it's hard to find a better cheesesteak or a teaberry milkshake, for that matter.
The '50s theme is pulled together by the retro counter stools, Cokes served in bottles and red-and-white checkered tablecloths. The motorcycle and classic car rallies in the parking lot complete the feel.
And to think the woman who helped start this all 80 years ago is still around to talk about it. Melva Landis, who turns 106 this month, still lives in the white house across the road, still eats ice cream and still tells stories at the diner now and again. She and her husband opened the place back in 1930, selling gas, bread, milk and other groceries for small change.
Over the years, the building has housed everything from a hardware store to a candy shop.
This may be the best fit.
"The nice thing about Cruiser's is that people like to reminisce about things they did years ago," said youth pastor Joel Snyder, 43, who runs the diner.
From Routes 11-15 North, go 8.5 miles north on Route 104
570-539-0043
cruiserscafe.blogspot.com
Shade Mountain Vineyard & Winery
There was a time when the Zimmermans raised hogs and dabbled in Christmas-tree
farming.
But the work was hard, and times were tough.
And when the hog market finally "went all to hell" in the early 1990s, Karl and his wife, Carolyn, overhauled their livelihood - they decided to grow grapes and make them into wine. Ten years later, they've slowly built their business into the award-winning Shade Mountain Vineyard & Winery, about
(Daily Record/Sunday News illustration -- Carrie Hamilton)
15 miles north on Route 104. Headquarters are a restored barn on the side of the road just north of Middleburg.
The Zimmermans, with the help of their grown children, turn 30-some varieties of grapes and various fruits into 25,000 gallons of wine each year.
Offerings range from the serious, like a highly acclaimed Lemberger (light-bodied German red with hints of pepper) to the whimsical, like the Six Dwarfs mint wine and the Prehistoric Peach (complete with a stone at the bottom of the bottle).
"Just because it's fun. I get a kick out of it," Karl Zimmerman said about his attempts at the playful and downright unusual, like his Bad Moose Mead, a honey wine.
"I like to do different things. Everybody does Chardonnay and cabernet."
15 miles north on Route 104
570-837-3644
shademountainwinery.com
T&D's Cats of the
World
The Bengal tiger crouched in the oversized rubber pool, all but his head
submerged.
Calm, quiet.
Waiting.
And then ...
A heart-charging explosion of water, muscle and fur - though only in the name of playing with the 1-year-old female tiger in his pen.
T&D's Cats of the World certainly has plenty of creatures roaming and lounging in enclosures, everything from lemurs to tiny foxes to coyotes to black bears that nap in a giant hammock made of recycled fire hose.
But the 35-acre wildlife refuge, possibly the largest in Pennsylvania, is known for its big cats, about 70 of them, ranging from lions and tigers to bobcats, cougars and servals.
The family-owned refuge started in 1985 and has grown steadily, taking in animals from owners who can't handle them anymore and small zoos that close down. Often, the animals have no other option.
"You feel good about providing them a home," said Jennifer Mattive, 33, who grew up on the grounds. "People always want more, but these guys are so satisfied with getting their food and things to do. They're a lot easier to please than most people."
The intimate, up-close moments are what make this special for visitors. Take Sheena, a 19-year-old Siberian tiger who recognizes her caregivers, slowly rolling her head around and contently chuffing whenever they come close.
20 miles north on Route 104
570-837-3377
tdscats.com
Penns Creek Pottery
The nearly 200-year-old restored grist mill is the background for Bill Lynch to work the craft he feels he was born to do.
Consider that Lynch served in the Peace Corps in West Africa, lived in New Hampshire and studied pottery on Lookout Mountain in Georgia.
But he's been making stoneware and porcelain pottery at the old Sampsell Mill for 20 years, on the grounds for 30.
"I enjoy making things people can use," he said. "A lot of the objects we use every day are mass produced. Pottery is a way to bring people together."
Everything he crafts is dishwasher- and microwave-safe.
And, often, visitors not only get a cheerful tour of the historic property, but they also can watch Lynch and others at work on the potter's wheel.
21 miles north on Route 104
570-837-3809
pennscreekpottery.com
David's Awesome Cookies
The quiet, unassuming teenager sat on the porch, picked up his acoustic guitar
and belted out a confident version of Johnny Cash's "Walk the Line."
A couple of middle-aged ladies stood and gawked.
Was the singing and playing possibly as good as the cookies?
Such is life for musician/baker David Beiler, 15, and his brother, Sam, 12.
The two entrepreneurs started making and selling peanut butter cookies on a whim two years ago and, now, in a bit of stunning fortune, their part-time business threatens to outgrow the family farmhouse along Route 45 near Millmont.
The brothers, with the help of their parents, have created business cards, T-shirts, a Web site and about 10 varieties of cookies that sell for $5 a dozen and bring in customers from all over.
Just ask Alverna Boyer, 56, and her sister, who bought four dozen on a late-spring evening and stuck around for the impromptu concert.
"He's not afraid to put chocolate chips in his chocolate chip cookies," Boyer said. "There's a lot of love in these cookies."
It wasn't long before their father, Sam Sr., built his sons a small bakery area on one side of the barn in the backyard. The boys saved to buy a commercial oven and mixer.
They put a homemade sign along the side of the road and promptly sold 30 dozen cookies.
Last fall, they sold a record 270 dozen during one Penn State football weekend. (A favorite is the massive "monster cookies," which include oatmeal, peanut butter, brown sugar, M&M's and chocolate chips.
The future? Consider that the family is related to Anne Beiler, who began the nationally successful Auntie Anne's pretzel business out of her kitchen.
"The thing that sells this product is that it's always fresh," said Sam Sr. "We bake on Thursday and start selling on Friday."
From Route 104, go 3 miles west of Mifflinburg on Route 45
570-922-1405
davids-awesome-cookies.com