Symphony on Wheels
Glenn, MI
September 27, 2020
Last week, for the first time since May, the sweatshirts came out. Fall didn’t start till Tuesday, but on Sunday the temperature in Atlanta had already begun to drop. It was beautiful. The air was cool, crisp, and refreshing. Autumn had arrived.
As the days shorten and the temperature drops, we decided to kick the mooching up a notch, and take our free-loading to the next level. For the third time this year, we’ve returned to Glenn.
Like bad oysters, we typically turn up here only in months without an ‘R’. This year, we decided to make an additional visit before this shell shuts for good. As it does, the leaves begin to shrivel, and change hues. Soon they will dry up, fall down, and blow away, dropping the curtain on a wonderful era…and a long year.
But for now, it is beautiful. Deep blue skies and technicolor trees frame an inland ocean more vivid and frigid than we see in Summer. We recently read that to appreciate Fall foliage, the Great Lakes surpass even New England as the supreme scene. We are a little early for the full splendor, so offer no verdict…other than that the setting is welcome, this year more than most.
David is out of school this week, so he can detach himself from the monotony of “online classes”. For months we’ve ostensibly been working from home. In reality, as my boss put it this week, we have been living at work. We had to get away.
Unfortunately, obligations arose the last couple weeks that kept Rita from joining, but that she didn’t want to deprive us. So, with Alexander at Auburn, it is once again just David and me.
We almost brought our dog, but reconsidered after imagining him bouncing hyperactively around the car. Squeezing him amid the luggage, sedating him in the drive-thru, hoping he doesn’t vomit in the backseat. We decided the drive is thrilling enough without that infusion of excitement.
Not that we aren’t becoming comfortable with the commute. Eleven hours can fly by with an established routine and familiar routes. We are blessed with two itineraries from which to choose. To minimize riot risk, we opted this time to pass thru Cincinnati rather than Louisville, and arrived with no opposition, and windshields intact.
The drive was easy. Little traffic, no rain, two stops. We even made a return visit to Canes. It really is a pleasant trip, an assessment that is no doubt an effect of incipient insanity from being cooped-up most of this year. It starts with an hour overture across the north Georgia piedmont, then thru Chattanooga, into Knoxville, and over the edge of the southern Appalachians.
Like the soothing adagio after a rousing allegro, the rolling hills of central Kentucky are a fitting refrain to the verdant mountains of northeast Tennessee. The next movement carries us thru the open cornfields of northern Indiana, which this time of year surprise us with the bright beauty of their golden aspect.
The scherzo took us into Michigan at early evening, just before sunset. By the time we’d grabbed groceries in South Haven, the curtain of darkness had descended on the stage.
But, as we fumbled our way thru pitch black and into the house, unseen waves welcomed us with a final, soothing serenade along the shore. This morning, under clear skies, we are pleased, as always, to see the orchestra, and await the encore.
JD
