For Friday’s exploring, I ended up going to run some errands in the town just east of here (the towns are about the same size, but we got to keep the small town historic charm and tourism, they got the big box stores). I had a gift card from Panera from my former upstairs neighbor (an apology from when she started feeding squirrels on her fire escape, which left my porch covered in debris, but it may have been a passive-aggressive apology, given that there isn’t a Panera in our town), so since there was one near my errands I picked up some lunch there. Then I drove up to Shenandoah National Park to check out Skyline Drive.

The traffic wasn’t too bad, probably because a lot of people don’t know that the park is open despite the shutdown. They just aren’t collecting admission, and there are no rangers on duty. There were big signs at the entrance warning that there were no rangers, so rescue in case of emergency could take a long time, as well as reminders that trash may not be collected, so take your trash with you instead of putting it in a trash can.

It was a really pretty drive, but the best fall color always seemed to happen in places where there was no way to stop and look at it. The areas around the scenic overlooks where you could pull off the road weren’t quite as pretty. It was also windy and a bit cold, although it wasn’t windy at all in the valley. Now I know to be careful about what days I choose to go up into the mountains or, as they say around here, go “over the mountain” to get to Charlottesville.

I ended up skipping the bookstore because it turned out their sale was just a big Christmas sale of decor, and I don’t really need more Christmas stuff. I’ll have to go up there to look at books some other time.

Saturday was a bit chilly, and that seemed to have curtailed the event at the Frontier Culture Museum. The cats weren’t even out and about. But I got to walk around, saw a small demo of blacksmithing at a portable forge, and greeted the resident enormous pig. Then I walked downtown later but didn’t really find anything at the sales. It was kind of cold, so there weren’t too many kids doing the downtown trick-or-treating.

So far, I think some of the prettiest views of fall colors are at the end of my driveway, where I can look at the trees down the hill from me.

I don’t have any particular ideas for this weekend. I need to hit either an orchard or a farm stand and get my supply of apples for pies and apple butter. I haven’t had my yearly dose of apple cider donuts, but there’s a cider festival at the Frontier Culture Museum next weekend, and the cider donut guy will be part of that. I’ll get to see how they make cider. The trees haven’t entirely changed colors yet, so fall may be prolonged. In my backyard there are trees that are just about bare, trees that are gold, and trees that are still green. We have reached the point where enough leaves have fallen that I can see the mountains from my house again. I love coming downstairs in the morning to a view of the sun rising from behind the mountains.