Where I Run: Swamp Fox Road

Well, here in south-central PA we're going to see some more snow today, right about when our 38" monster snow from January is finally just about melted.

Oh, well, it's winter in the northeast.  It snows.  Get over it.

And now for some shots I took of one of my favorite local routes.  Note the road names!

I've posted before about this road and this route, here.  You ought to click over and scope it out.

Where I Run: Jct of Marion and Swamp Fox Roads

Image credit Gary

This post probably only will be meaningful to the vintage guys and ladies.  Explanation at the bottom for the younger folk:

I ran into Leslie Nielsen this morning on my 10 mile loop from the house. We hung out, sang THE song, and then went our respective ways.

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Explanation: the village of Marion (exit 10 on I-81 in southern PA) sits just up the road from this shot and is named after the real guy.  So who is the real guy?

Gen. Francis Marion was in the Carolinas and there gave the British fits during the American Revolution.  He was a guerrilla type fighter who became known as the "Swamp Fox."

All I can figure is that a local guy either served with Marion or was a big enough fan from afar to get a PA village and a road named after the General.

Enter the entertainment industry.  Swamp Fox was a short lived Disney TV show in the 50s (maybe very early 60s?) starring Leslie Nielsen.  My formative years....

THE theme song was quite catchy:

Image credit YouTube.  If the link doesn't play:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADesK3Wa_D0&sns=em

Where I Run: Swamp Fox Road

There's a little town nearby called Marion that I run through on about 1/4 of my runs. It's quaint and quiet, inhabited by perhaps 650 people. Both of its main streets, the east-west (PA Rt 914, the Swamp Fox Road) and the north-south (US Rt 11) have bypasses around them so the heart of the village remains calm.


The town is in fact named after the American Revolutionary war general Francis Marion, immortalized to my generation by a Walt Disney TV series starring Leslie Nielsen.

I've always wondered about the name--whether some person from this little village in southern Pennsylvania had some personal connection to General Marion. Or whether the village was founded at a time when there were heroes and a grateful populace named their town after such a hero.

By the way, this route is along what I call the "Pig Farm 10 miler." Although the pig farm that once existed along this road is no longer there (it's still a farm, thank goodness, they just don't raise pigs any more), the route is forever and always just the Pig Farm to me and the family.

When I slip out early for a run before anyone else is awake, I always leave a note of my whereabouts. When I run here the note just says something like: "Pig Farm, ETA 8:00 am."