Fall Colors + Monster Truck + Mystery Tour

Wouldn't it be fun and festive to change color every season?  (Like way more than tanning.)  When you sense that change in the air, the forlorn sound of the wind, and want to eat soup all the time...what if those fall feelings thickened our skin, colored our hair aflame, turned our eyes/veins/fingernails purple?  I suppose it's just as well we don't dry out and blow away.

Nothing complements a contemplative, blustery autumn hike quite like a ride in the back of a pickup truck outfitted with monster truck tires and a cooler full of beer, etc.  'Lil patriotic flag -- check.  Lap blankets -- check.  Evidently well-known country music on a small speaker -- check.  I think we affected the course of the river, smashing over the gravel embankments too many times to count.  It was ten times more 'Murican (merkin?) than ATVing.

Ok, my Alaska travel plans are much less mysterious than they were five hours ago when I scribbled out that headline.  I will brave the Dalton Highway, a "high-speed gravel road," piloting a rented SUV equipped with spare tires (yes, plural), a CB radio, water and snacks, and cross my fingers that it goes better than that time I drove a rental van containing all my earthly possessions and sideswiped a delivery truck a couple blocks from the Holland Tunnel entrance (that would be leaving Manhattan, folks).  It's been over four months since then (that's almost 2 1/2 years in dog years), so I'm pretty sure I got that out of my system.

Why is this happening?  I'm not completely sure, but there's a good chance of seeing multi-colored auroras up north of the Arctic Circle, as well as pretty neat rocks.

-I only sold one oatmeal today, technically after breakfast hours.  #NeverSurrender #YouCantKilltheOatmeal