Big Mike & Fate

Travel 2 Minutes

If you’re thinking this post is an article about the former…cough, cough, First Lady, you’re wrong!

Years ago, when hubby and I first moved to this area, one of our favorite things to do was explore the region on our Harley. On one particular trip, after an extremely wet spring, we came upon a state park with an enormous waterfall.  It was breathtaking and sooo close to the road.  We took a bunch of pictures, but much to our chagrin, once home we realized we failed to take notice of the park’s name.

The following summer we tried to replicate the trip to find that waterfall and state park again, but to no avail. We had a general idea, but none of the parks we went to were quite right and none in the area had any waterfalls.  Finally, we spotted a group of bikers on the road ahead and decided to follow them for a bit.  They turned up ahead onto a road with a covered bridge and we followed.

As soon as we crossed the bridge, we saw they turned into this little hole in wall place called Big Mike’s.  It looked like someone bought a nice house next to the river and turned it into a general store and restaurant.

The walls in the restaurant were filled with Philadelphia sports memorabilia highlighting the Eagles football team.  There were pictures and jerseys in frames everywhere.  As we walked through, a large, bearded man approached us and introduced himself as Big Mike.  We told him we were big Eagles fans and how we never missed them when they practiced at Lehigh University.  He told us he and his family moved from Philadelphia because it was just too dangerous anymore.  But once they moved to this area, he discovered what we had also discovered—a shortage of decent places serving good steak sandwiches.  He decided to bring a bit of Philly north and opened his own steak sandwich and hoagie place.

After we ordered and enjoyed the best steak sandwiches out of the Lehigh Valley, Big Mike came over to our table.  He asked how our food was, and after accepting our genuine praise, he said the secret is the rolls!  He contracted with a Philly bakery to deliver the delicious rolls twice a week.  He pays a little more, but the restaurant reviews revealed it to be a genius move!

Before we left, we asked Big Mike about the waterfall and the state park.  He said the only one close to the restaurant was World’s End State Park and the waterfall was actually the little creek after the flooding from a rainy spring.  We’ve been back many times, but the “waterfall” was never there again.

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Published by pat frederick

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