Trees and Travels

1:00pm      There's no way around it-- from August to May, I'm stuck in the Chicago suburbs for the school year. I get restless. This only increases as the time goes on, particularly in the winter time. Travel is hard, and frankly, I'm a baby when it comes to the cold. What am I to do? How am I supposed to get my nature fill when I am trapped in middle-class subdivision-warehouse-department store-chain restaurant-land? The only thing that one could do in this situation is enjoy the little things.      As I type this out, we are receiving the first snowfall of the year. On most years, the first snowfall comes quite a bit before December 4th. Attribute the lateness to climate change, abnormally mild weather conditions, or coincidence-- I kind of like the timing. There was no snow until the start of meteorological winter, and I'm okay with that. Plus it's a Sunday. I don't even need to drive in it.      Anyway, I've been able to spend my Sun...

     Well, this year's Fall Colors Weekend at  Starved Rock State Park  in northern Illinois didn't provide an enormous rainbow of autumn colors, but it did serve as a beautiful place to relax on a mild October weekend. View the video that I recorded on this day My Day      It's about an hour and fifteen minute drive from home to the park. I arrived about 11:30, which is when I said that I would be there to start volunteering. The last twenty minutes or so of the drive is always pleasant, and this time even more so. The trees and leaves were still so full. They made for a lovely sight going around the twisted roads.       Fall Colors Weekend is the 2nd busiest weekend at Starved Rock, with Columbus Day weekend preceding it. There certainly were a ton of cars-- I was afraid that I would end up parking at a distant overflow lot. I was lucky to snatch up one of the last spots before that lot filled up.     ...