Finding Bigfoot

Our first fall here, I so wanted to take a trip to celebrate our tenth anniversary, but Jack was job hunting and his mom was still recovering from a quadruple bypass surgery.  Poor timing.  I shelved my ideas, though not as gracefully as I should have.  It seems that Jack is always working or sick on our anniversary, and there have been few years that we even celebrated the idea of us.  Last year when our anniversary rolled around, Jack had just gone back to work after his back injury, so I was just thankful that he was able to walk, even if it was with a limp.  After some dark, scary

days at the end of summer, the simple act of walking was a blessing.

This year, I was determined. For us, the end of September wasn't the ideal time to be away so we bumped our plans to the first of November and rented a fancy cabin near Beaver's Bend.  The cabin wasn't as secluded as we would have liked, but it was an otherwise perfect trip. If we had gone in September, it would not have been nearly as beautiful.   The air was crisp and clean with that newness

that comes when fall replaces a tired summer.  Nights were cold enough to let us enjoy the hot tub and snuggling before the fireplace.  Days were warm enough to go about in shirt sleeves and have the windows down as we drove through little towns.  The trees were a glory in themselves as we wound up through Honobia to Talahina, across the Talamina drive to Mina, AK, continuing up to Queen Wilhemina State Park.  As we drove, the leaves floated down like giant red and gold snow flakes, littering the road before us.  We found the best muffins, perhaps the best baked goods ever, at Adam and Eve's coffee shop in Hochatown. Lemon-Cranberry with a dollop of lemon custard baked into the center - I must learn to replicate these.  There was also the hidden gem of an art gallery/sandwich shop in Mina.  There were other funny tourists that we shared a moment with and there were others that we simply tried not to stare at.  I would love to have a day just to poke around some of the small towns we drove through - several had thriving downtowns that just called to us.

                                      One slight disappointment was the town of Honobia, home of

annual Bigfoot festival.  I had hoped there would be a cool gift shop with something for Bell.  Turns out it was a mostly abandoned campground.  There was indeed a shacky building that claimed to be a gift shop, but it was closed.  Despite the emptiness of Honobia, the drive from there to Talahina was worth it, winding up a mountain through gorgeous trees and over brooks that indeed looked as if they babbled.

Really, the best part was just getting to be with Jack with no one else's needs determining our schedule.  So often when we are at home, the needs of his parents or Bella take center stage.  I am okay with that - it is part of the life we chose.  However, it doesn't mean that I am ready to abandon  romance  either.  I am lucky that Jack still often holds my hand as he goes to sleep or at least rubs his foot against mine.  He still finds those moments for stolen kisses.  Even though we still manage to appreciate each other, it is a rare gift to get to be alone together for almost two whole days.  We had our phones with us just in case Bell had an emergency while at my folks.  We did log on to the ipad a few
times to check state park maps and find the hours for Adam and Eve's, but for the most part we were off the grid of the intrusiveness of the electronic world. We talked and talked and laughed and were also just quiet together. There was time for some romance, silly pictures, and poking around in kitchy gift shops.

I hate to say it, but we were typical tourists, gawking at the scenery, taking pictures of each other, and driving slower than the locals; Jack even stopped several times for me to snag the perfect red, gold, and orange leaves.  We may have not found Bigfoot in Honobia, but  the gift shop at the state park had a Bigfoot shirt just Bella's size, and on the highway between Beaver's Bend and Broken Arrow, there is a big metal silhouette of Bigfoot    It turns out that if you back the car up, you can set your camera on top of it, set the timer, and then race to be in a picture with Bigfoot.  You can even hold his hand.