Sunday was our day! According to our fall color sources, color was at “peak” around here and “just past peak” around Roscommon.
It was a perfect day for our annual “leaf peeping” trip and probably one of the best displays of fall color we have seen in years!
With God’s help and a fantastic medical team, I think I appreciated all of the fall beauty even more than I ever have. I still feel like I was “gifted” some additional years to enjoy this life after my close call during my “hospital summer.” It certainly helps me to appreciate everything I have much more than before.
In our travels seeking color, we drove in a huge circle in the center of Michigan, 153 miles in total – up Old 27 to Houghton Lake, a stop for lunch at Garret’s (a favorite of ours), then around the west and north sides of Houghton Lake before heading north to the south side of Higgins Lake. Except for downtown Harrison and about 15 miles between Harrison and Houghton Lake, the color was fabulous everywhere we looked. The area where it was “past its peak” was in the area called “Dead Tree Swamp,” south of the lake where it was a rusty gold – still pretty, but not quite as colorful.
We traveled on into Roscommon amid reds and yellows on every side, made a brief stop at our (former) campsite, where the fall color was still perfectly “at Peak,” to check and see if Sister-In-Law Marlene’s trailer was “winter ready,” (it was) then headed south again on M18 ending up on 61, then south on Bard Road before coming back into Clare on Colonville Road (after a brief detour for some unfinished roadwork).
We both decided that the most colorful season in Michigan is nearly over for another year.
It was exceptionally beautiful everywhere we went, but the best color was definitely on Old 27 on this trip.
I really love this time of year when the trees bloom like spring flowers. It makes that “last hurrah” before the winter season arrives again almost worth it. You notice I say “almost.”
Now, Halloween is almost here, we had our first hard frost last night (Sunday evening), November, that 11th month arrives next Wednesday and Thanksgiving is only four weeks away, with Christmas only a month further along on the last page of the calendar.
I love holidays, but I just love Halloween.
It’s one of my favorites. Besides Trick or Treating, there are loads of events for this holiday all over the area (Check out Halloween Happenings in this issue).
As a youngster, months of planning went into the Halloween costume [my Mom loved to sew] and a trip into town on the big evening to go trick or treating was always topped off at the school’s annual Halloween carnival, complete with apples to bob for and a huge bonfire to roast marshmallows at out behind the school.
Guess I never really grew up, because when our youngsters were little and we lived in town, I made their costumes too. When it was time for trick or treating, I would get dressed up and go with the kids while Jack stayed home to pass out the goodies.
When they got a little older and didn’t want my company anymore, I would still dress up as ghoulishly as possible and just “hang around” our front door so I could scare certain youngsters…
Later on in the evening, I’d go out and ring some of our friends’ doorbells as well. Some are still wondering who that old hag was. Jack’s best friend back then actually threatened me with a call to the cops once when I was only hanging around his porch and harassing him a little…
Man, you wouldn’t dare do that in these times, would you?