PUNXSUTAWNEY – With a spur of the moment decision at midnight to go see the groundhog’s day celebration in person, I found myself departing in the middle of the night (with a skeptical dad in tow) for the 4 and a half hour drive to the home of Punxsutawney Phil.

Arriving in the town of Punxsutawney, we bundled up to embrace the dark and rainy morning as we followed the crowd walking through the town towards Gobbler’s Knob. After trudging through the snow and mud for over a mile, the Knob appeared on the top of the hill in an opening of the woods. Here, we joined thousands of groundhog enthusiasts.

To keep the crowd entertained while waiting for Phil, various musical groups performed, changing the words of songs like Blurred Lines and What Does the Fox Say to include groundhog references in them.

As the night turned into day, the crowd grew as a misty haze engulfed the Knob.

Addressing last year’s controversy with the incorrect determination of an early spring followed by a lawsuit from an Ohio prosecutor, the Inner Circle invited the lawyer from Ohio onstage where he explained himself before apologizing to Phil. Then with an hour to go the fireworks started lighting up the woods with endless playing of the Star Wars theme song in the background.

Finally, the Inner Circle took the stage and lulled an unwilling Phil from his cozy hole.  The crowd, eager to have an early spring and encouraged by the rainy, overcast and cloudy weather, listened carefully as Phil gave his prediction of a dreaded 6 more weeks of winter.

With Phil’s verdict in mind, many people in dismay – much like the Broncos after their lost to the Seahawks, trekked back through the snow and mud to prepare to hunker down for another 6 weeks of winter.