Sunday, November 02, 2008

And The Colors Kept Coming


It was in the autumn of 1978 that I refer to as the Colorful Divorce Tour. I had just gotten divorced from my first wife and I decided to take a couple weeks off and follow the colors through New England and the North Country.

If you plan it right you can do a loop through New England and New York that takes a couple weeks and you will see autumn leaves in their peak co color the entire time.

The first couple nights were spent in Eastern Massachusetts. Then I spent a couple nights in Maine, Booth Bay Harbor and Bangor. From there I spent a night in New Hampshire and then Vermont. Then I crossed Champlain into Plattsburgh for a night and then continued onto Lake Placid. I spent another colorful night in Saranac Lake, and followed it up with one more night in Tupper Lake.

Before hitting the Catskill Mountains, I went Western Massachusetts, but found all the oak trees in the Green and Berkshire Mountains had turned an unattractive rusty color. The Catskills were in full color when I arrived there, where I spent a couple days fishing the Beaverkill River.

I got back to New Jersey on October 19th where I enjoyed color for nearly another two weeks.

It was a once in a life-time experience for me, living with peak autumn color for over a month. The only thing that made the gray overcast winter bearable that year was the fresh memory of all the colors that were still in my mind.

8 Comments:

Blogger LMC said...

Seeing the US in the fall is on my list of things to do.

4:30 AM  
Blogger Auntie said...

Ah, Autumn.

Without a doubt my favorite season.

5:09 AM  
Blogger loopymamain06 said...

Truely.....Autumns
An autumn memory for me was that same year, I found out I was going to live. An awesome Autumn.
loopymama who had to do the math.
:)

6:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

New England in the fall is gorgeous!

We used to live in NYC in the 70's and I remember taking long family car rides out of the city on the weekends.

The colors and crisp air of autumn were my favorite.

7:11 AM  
Blogger MissKris said...

My parents were originally from New England. I visited one time in late Sept/early Oct and even then the foliage was a banquet for the eyes to behold. I hope to share it some day with Dear Hubby but if our 401k keeps dipping down any more, we'll probably end up being panhandlers on West Burnside!

9:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This week I had the pleasure of driving from Astoria to north Idaho I feel guilty for not taking pictures given what I've seen. Even the Hybrid poplar plantation in Boardman had a certain charm. New Englanders tend to turn up their noses at Fall colors in the northwest muttering "not enough red". Perhaps. The October conditions made for fantastic fall foliage in the old Oregon Territory in 2008 in my opinion.

10:47 AM  
Blogger JustRex said...

The closest I've ever come to New England is two months at Ft. Dix, New Jersey. In February and March. ACk.
The trees here are turning and the wife took her mother and our daughter out this morning and looked at the trees and took some pictures. If the leaves would just stay ON the sneakin' trees autumn would be my favorite time of the year. Love the colors, hate the leaves.

5:54 PM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

LMC no autumn Down Under? I do understand that the East Coast of the US and Japan are the two most colorful autumn locations.

Auntie, too short of a season as well.

Loopster, pretty cryptic, Darlin. Care to explain?

Trish, I lived 30 miles from NYC for 33 years. I bet you probably cruised my home town.

Kris, Hold tight. things will get better.

Anon, We do get some color here in the West, but it like the difference in winning an office pool and winning Power Ball. I don't believe I just referenced the Lottery...the stupid tax.

Darev, some oaks hold their rusty looking leaves all winter. It doesn't look good at all.

4:31 AM  

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