This was NOT the peak weekend...

The HotY has been watching the leaf report for 3 weeks now waiting for that “peak” time to view the fall colors along the banks and bluffs of the Mississippi. Last Thursday he proclaimed that the time had come – Saturday would be the prime leaf viewing day. Leaves were to be 75%-85% changed and that’s good enough because if you know the finer points of leaf viewing you know that if you wait too too too long that you run the risk of all the leaves being blown from the trees. So 75% is good. And Saturday was a beautiful day. The sun was shining the temperature was perfect, the kids were excited about finding pumpkins. As we started out and traveled closer to the river we noticed something – there were still A LOT of green trees – like mostly, surely the colors would become more vibrant as we got nearer The River. Ummmm no! But there was an entire myriad of GREEN to view! Whoever writes the leaf report is obviously not looking at the leaves or color blind! Grrrrrrr.

So along with tracking the perfect leaf viewing weekend the HotY also did a search for pumpkin patches and apple orchards along our route (can you tell he’s a planner – me not so much – well at least not for this kind of stuff – I mean why do I need to be a planner when I have the Lewis and Clark of modern civilization to lead the way). ANYWAY, the first town promised what SOUNDED like a great pumpkin patch, with hayrides, and mazes and pumpkins and apples. So we set out, totally ignoring the local art fair which took over the entire downtown area, traveling along washboard gravel roads nearly being run off the road by the rural post man and backtracking when we came to a dead end in our quest to find the ultimate pumpkin patch. Then we saw it – the sign – the dilapidated apple covered with NO HUNTING signs. I guess we should have taken that as a clue but we didn’t. We drove up the bluff and came to – NOTHING! I mean there was a house and barns and a dog barking at the driveway but it was not the Autumnal playground that was advertised. Let’s just say there was much whining and crying in the van as we turned around and said “no pumpkins here”. We did find a pumpkin patch within a reasonable amount of time and paid $5.00 a pumpkin. What the heck. Pumpkins should be free. Anyway, by that time no price was too great to stop the incessant asking of “when will we find the pumpkins?” So all in all our trip wasn’t quite as expected but it was still good – sometimes it is just about the ride. And hey we got cheese curds and good ice cream - what else does a person need?

I think that the millionaire/billionaire is being booted out of DWTS tonight. That’s my prediction. We’ll see…

TTFN.