On Wednesday, I took a drive along the same road, on my way to the U.P. girls tennis finals. I also visited my mom, but that was a busier day than I planned. More on that later.
Not much to say about the pictures. Fall is a very colorful season up where I live, and Sunday was just about the peak of the 2006 color season. Plus, the sun was out, boosting the color intensity even more.
I remember a drive we took a number of years ago, when the leaves were so vividly colored, they seemed to be in day-glo paint. The oranges, the reds, the yellows were so incredibly colorful. Once upon a time, working for a college paper, I called the leaves "Trix-colored." As in the breakfast cereal--"raspberry red, lemon yellow and orange orange." The copy editor didn't get it. When it came into print, it appeared "tri-colored." WTF???
Anyway, prepare your eyeballs to be dazzled. Here are some of the sights we saw on Sunday afternoon:
How'd you like to take a ride down one of the dirt roads leading off the state highway?
We found an abandoned road through the woods and decided to take a hike ...
There were recent tire tracks and ruts in the dirt, but few pass this way ...
If you have never walked a path like this, this is what it looks like when you look down ...
But of all things, look what I found along the path ...
But the fall color season passes quickly. This year, even more so. Here is a group of trees that we saw on Sunday ...
And here is the same group (I think--same general area, anyway) on Wednesday ...
Here is the intersection by that dirt road on Sunday ...
... and on Wednesday ...
And here is the area where that abandoned road meets the state highway, just before we started our hike on Sunday ...
The same area when I drove past on Wednesday ...
It's a reminder that all things pass, and one day is always worth two tomorrows. All I can say is that I'm glad I made it a priority to take my wife on a color tour on Sunday. On Wednesday, the trill would have been gone ... along with most of the leaves.
* * *
On Wednesday, I covered the girls tennis tournament in Kingsford, and our girls won the U.P. championship. It's the 12th time they have won the U.P. title since 1991. Definitely our most successful high school sport.
Once the tournament was done and the trophy and medals were presented, I went off to visit my mom--her nursing home is only about 15 miles away. I had a couple things for her, and I thought I could visit for an hour and a half, then head for home and have supper and a relaxing evening at home.
But my mom had other ideas. She wanted to go for a drive and to see her house--specifically the trees in front, to see if the leaves had turned red. As it turns out, they hadn't--just gold. But then she saw her neighbor's house across the road and asked to go over there.
We drove over there, and I knocked at the door and found out they were home. I didn't know whether my mom would be able to go inside, with her frail condition and walker. But she wanted to. She slowly made her way across the grass, and then we helped her very slowly climb the steps. Inside, they had coffee and talked for a while about family and old times. They had a great time. Then we led her back down the stairs, across the grass and back into the car.
While they were talking, I thought of somewhere else she would like to go. We drove off the normal path, down another road a few miles and wound up at the township cemetery. I drove in a back entrance and up a narrow road to a back corner where her husband and her other son are buried. I rolled down the window, and she was able to visit from the car. It's a lovely area. There are woods nearby and farm fields behind the gravesite. Very rural area, atop a hill. I imagine the wildlife make regular visits, too.
It had been over a year since she was down there. She got sick last September, and I'm the only one who has been driving her around since then. She was very grateful that I took her there.
Then it was finally time to eat. We went to Hardees, but this time I ordered the food to go, and we ate in the car--she got her usual chicken sandwich and strawberry shake, with a few french fries. It had been a mild day and a pleasant evening, though it was already getting dark.
From there, the car headed back to the nursing home. We visited for a while, and then it was time for me to head home. The sun had already set, and the last traces of daylight were nearly all gone. No deer problems on the way home, fortunately. I got back home at about 9 p.m. About three hours later than I wanted. With the way work has been lately, I was really looking forward to a quiet, relaxing evening.
But it was all right. My mom had a happy day and did some things she wanted to do: See her neighbors. See the gravesite. Ate some chicken that has some taste. Got to see some fall colors. She was tired but happy when I left. So all was well.
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