Itinerant Air-Cooled

. . . as is my wont when the temperatures plummet and the sunlight describes a puny little southern arc from southeast to southwest. I finally get to greet my sun above the trees at 8:30AM or something, and it just ducks away by 5:00PM. Actually, the sun has had difficulty getting through to me with all of these nor'easters and lake effects:



Even so, the beauty of this planet is compelling and I hear myself begging me to shut up already with the whiny. Cold happens. So does rain. So do magnificent Lake Champlain sun reflections against the bottoms of the clouds as I approach Burlington, Vermont:





Once upon a time, I enjoyed the cold well enough. Took long woodsy walks in it, shovelled snow in a t-shirt, was "famous" in fact, for bicycling from Newburyport Massachusetts to Kittery Maine in the rain and the snow with those stiff ocean breezes bringing in the aroma of the marshes at low tide. I would return with racing stripes of tire spray up my back. Removed an engine in a splitty in 10* snow back in college. Ha. Not now. I am in middle-age metabolism and have connected with the inner lizard in me. Give me sun and a rock.

After a day with appetite in the hurtle of New Jersey, I escaped the metropolitan moonscape of potholes to head north to Rhode Island to visit with jimbear in his lovely equally pothole festooned village below Providence. It almost got warm in the afternoon even.

Then I drove up to RandyInMaine's house in Maine to pick up the very last Michelin LTX on Earth to give the BobD a full set finally. My left front tire on the Road Warrior, after all, had been butchered by a Mitsubishi . . . Thank-you RandyInMaine. I have to pay forward your generosity somehow. Then I drove up through Vermont to catch those cloud reflections and across the top of Lake Champlain about a mile or two south of Canada to visit my folks in Essex New York:





Anybody's parents drive them crazy? Yaah, me too. There is no escape from the purity of a child's love. View from the deck on the barn:



Look, a VW:




. . . I reeled in emotional confusion to Syracuse to visit Vdubtech and Rustybus via some dappled golden dirt paths. Took the New York State Thruway to have coffee with this girl in Rochester, this girl who made my heart sing with the gift of a book, but who sort of blew my mind with a photo journey through years and years of beautiful sometimes fierce people's lives, time is too short for us slow learners:



Northeast Fall . . . it's like an acid trip when you cram your face in a box of Trix.





Two more official Itinerary visits and this very busy season draws to a close. Did someone say "draw"?
Colin

What is that to the left of the picture in the clouds? I just watched a show on UFO's in history last night on the History channel, and it has me all riled up!

I have already asked for the 26th off, promise no phones. Morning better? The day can be flexible, I just have an event the evening of the 26th.

Fall in Atlanta. Still green below but changing fast.

Silly Colin, Trix are for kids!

that's just flippin beautiful. I miss seeing the colors change like that.
I wonder how far from I - I might be able to drive and see such things again.

missing Wisconsin and it's fall colors today as is, especially with my dad in the hospital getting surgery (just gall bladder removal thankfully.)

Some of those pictures make me want to cry. I miss fall in Vermont :(

Northeast Fall . . . it's like an acid trip when you cram your face in a box of Trix.

...and how would you know what cramming your face in a box of Trix looks like..??

i miss it too- loved driving through smugglers notch in the fall.

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I think the fall colors look even better.
on the plus side, you can sleep an hour after seeing their beauty, not so much with the alternative method.

We also just returned from a delightful drive through ME, NH, and VT to a nice 'noreaster storm here at the coast. Lots of rain and some wind and great waves at the beach. I see it snowed a foot in Killington, VT since we left there.

It was only a few days, but sometimes just getting away from normal life for a few days is time well spent.

Peak colors had left the higher elevations, but were still very nice a bit lower and further south. We picked up a half gallon of maple syrup from a roadside vendor in VT for $26.

It was good seeing you again Colin! Safe travels!!

Did someone say Fall in Vermont?










The green buses in the spring green seem so long ago now. And the grass is always greener because I am with Colin and falling out of love with the iced up, locked down months to come. There was snow on the mountain across the valley from me today. That used to bring joy to my heart, now it's more like dread. Still, that ever so brief period of green chlorophyll draining from the leaves is always awe inspiring no matter how many times I see it.

aopisa wrote:Did someone say Fall in Vermont?

SEE?? God is, like, so, GARISH? It's like . . . show-offy?
Like, "I'm God, so here I put some shiner on it?"
Colin

Amskeptic wrote:

aopisa wrote:Did someone say Fall in Vermont?

SEE?? God is, like, so, GARISH? It's like . . . show-offy?
Like, "I'm God, so here I put some shiner on it?"
Colin

I guess that just goes to show that there's no accounting for taste even if your the omnipotent creator of the universe. Case in point; if we are made in his image then so is the cast of 'Jersey Shore.'

aopisa wrote:Did someone say Fall in Vermont?

Good grief did you take this shot? I bet Glasseye is eve going "Damn, that is a nice shot! Where is my camera?"

This is fall in the Georgia hills. The Dahlonega Gold Rush days, Farmers market and crafts. I was here yesterday, lots of people and food. No real leaf color turning yet, give it a week or so:

Yep, those are my shots, thanks. The gracious Earth Mother supplied the palette, I just pushed the shutter button.

Funny to see people still running around in shorts and t-shirts. I had the wood stove stoked all day long yesterday. I think there are more people in those pictures than the three towns surrounding me combined!

aopisa wrote:Funny to see people still running around in shorts and t-shirts. I had the wood stove stoked all day long yesterday. I think there are more people in those pictures than the three towns surrounding me combined!

And they are all so white for Georgia!