JIM THORPE --The annual Fall Foliage Festival in Jim Thorpe kicks off this weekend and the forecast is cloudy, chilly and soggy.
"The trains are all sold out, the town's sold out, so no matter what the weather is I think we're going to have a great turnout. This weekend looks a little bit rough but I think we'll be fine,” said vendor Gary Wagner.
The festival runs the first three weekends in October and means a lot for local businesses as thousands of tourists stop in the area for leaf peeping, shopping, dining, train rides and more.
"We all look forward to it, you know a lot of people get through the winter here through this month, you know if the weather is nice and business is good, you're talking, usually the second and third weekends are the biggest weekends here,” said Wagner.
Betty Lou McBride is giving ghost tours at the Old Jail in Jim Thorpe through the festival.
Rain or shine, she says anytime is a good time for a ghost tour.
“We take you through the old jail in the dark and tell you stories of what other people have told me they felt there, of strange feelings, being touched, seeing things,” she said.
Newswatch 16 spoke with some out-of-towners who are already here in Jim Thorpe for the fall festival weekend and they say they don't mind too much if there's not a lot of color on the mountain to see or that the weather is a little bit iffy this weekend.
They plan to make the best of it.
"We love this cold weather, we're from Buffalo. We like it," laughed Terry Baker of Buffalo, New York.
Last year, the festival got off to a similar start; it was dreary, wet and a bit cold.
Locals say the final two weekends were great and the festival was a success.
They're hoping for the same this year.
