The Most Beautiful Day of Fall

This past weekend was probably the most beautiful fall weekend imaginable...maybe the best weather of the whole year. Full fall foliage, blue skies, temps in the 70's and no humidity. So of course, I was all set with a plan for a fun family day on Sunday. I wanted to go to the Lehigh Gorge area, let G3 play around, and take pictures. We have gone every year for the past few years, but this was definitely to be the best yet. Plus, I was still on my quest for some decent fall pictures of G3.

Then Gabe announced that we should go the great Pumpkin Festival at Country Junction off the turnpike. The brochure in the mail showed pumkins galore, plus other attractions, and we even tried to entice the Riefers to meet us there (be glad you didn't. Be very glad.) Because the Pumpkin Festival was what my sister Kellie would refer to as a "shit show". It was bad. It was basically a crappy carnival with a bunch of tourist-trap-fall-like things, and a ton of overpriced pumpkins. As soon as we got there, we wanted to leave, but in the name of not having wasted 40 minutes driving, we went in. It was insanely crowded. G3 was overwhelmed. You had to pay for everything individually and it was all overpriced. We did two things--got G3 a pony ride and paid $3 for him to go into the petting zoo of deer, a pot-bellied piglet, and a very cute beagle puppy. He clung to me like I was leaving him to the wolves. Cotton candy and snocones were purchased, attempts to use the bathroom were thwarted by "Out of Order" signs (seriously? Thousands of a people and you don't have a working bathroom?) A final decision was made NOT to get a shopping cart full of expensive pumpkins. In short: this place was nowhere NEAR what I had in mind for the day and after 45 minutes we hightailed out of there.

Shit Show

First Real Pony Ride. Completely and utterly unimpressed.

The plus side was were just miles from the gorge area. We headed towards Jim Thorpe, and right before we were to go over the mountain, Gabe pulled off onto a side path, telling me he was taking me somewhere special. I was suspicious, and rightfully so. First, a girl dressed for a night on the town emerged from the woods, crossed our path, and disapeared over a bank carrying a gallon jug of what could have been apple cider...but the way she was chugging it while walking made me think it was something different. Then we passed this:

Grafitti on the way to Gabe's special spot.

Back on the road to the gorge! By now it was about 2 p.m. and just as we were about to crest the mountain, we hit a wall. Of cars. And we both collectively groaned. There was no doubt that the town of Jim Thorpe was holding it's annual Foliage Festival.

Those of you not familiar with Jim Thorpe, well, there is one way in and one way out. The town lies along the Lehigh River and the road runs along the gorge. We have both been stuck in traffic here before...but had no idea what we were in for. We slowly inched our way about 2 miles over the mountain over the next NINETY minutes. Tension grew as minute by minute of this beautiful day slipped away. I started taking pictures from the car and I will admit that the view was spectacular...but not what I had envisioned.

Everyone apparently wants to go to the Foliage Festival...

But by the time we made it through we were both highly aggravated and the Jeep was running on fumes. (G3, for the record, was the most well-behaved of the 3 of us.) As we passed the road to turn on to go to the gorge, Gabe took one look at the traffic and kept on driving. I suppose I yelled the "f" word a lot at this point. ALL that and we weren't even going to go? Gabe assured me he had "somewhere special" again that he was taking me to. Not amused. It's a well-known fact that I generally don't handle it well when I have a "vision" of a day or event and it gets ruined. Enough so that my own family makes fun of me. Whatever.

Finally after getting a full tank of gas we ended up at Rockport, another area of the gorge, mostly used as an outtake area for rafters. There is a wide, flat hiking/biking path there, and we set baby Gabe free on his first real hike. He practically ran, considering he was full of 3 hours in the car's worth of energy. We walked along for about a half hour, and surprisingly got a few good pictures, so the day wasn't a total wash.

"Daddy? What were those words Mommy kept yelling in the car?"

Scenic moment...finally...

Another Scenic Moment...

Running...

Several things were learned though:

1. Country Junction's pumpkin festival blows. Avoid at all costs unless you like commercialized, overpriced crap.

2. Avoid Jim Thorpe and any area near Jim Thorpe the weekend of the Foliage Festival, unless you like sitting in your car and getting 0 miles to the gallon for well over an hour.

3. Just go to Rockport in the first place next year.