One of the
many things I remember from my childhood is every spring my parents would load
up in the car and spend a day driving around certain parts of Oklahoma doing
the “Dogwood Tour”.
I don’t remember where they actually went but I remember it was south
and in the hillier regions of Oklahoma. I
need to check into that. I just remember
they looked forward to the beauty of the trees in bloom.
Then again
in the fall they’d head back to those same regions for a fall foliage tour. I
hadn’t really thought of that until a month or so ago we received our copy of
the October 2013 issue of Life’s Vintage Newsmagazine. A free publication we receive from Life
Senior Services.
There were
two good articles in the newsmagazine that talked about “Leaf Peeping and Fall
Travel”. One was called Fall’s Fiery Colors in which Oxley Nature Center’s
Eddie Reese explains why the various colors and has suggestions for the peak
viewing times.
While I knew
the basics of how the change in chlorophyll works I found two things in the
article very helpful. One was a list of
the common deciduous trees and what color they would be in the fall.
Quoting from
the article which gives its sources as Better Homes and Gardens and the OSU
extension center.
AMUR MAPLE:
bright red
BALD
CYPRESS: reddish –brown
BURNING
BUSH: red and pink
Chinese
Pistache: orange-red
Common
Hackberry: occasional yellow fall color
Dogwood:
purple-red
Ginko:
golden yellow
Golden
Raintree: occasional yellow color
Japanese
Maple: red, yellow and orange
Lacebark
Elm: yellow with red fruit
Redbud:
occasional yellow color
River Birch:
yellow
Possumhaw:
red fruit
Serviceberry:
orange and red
Shumard Oak:
reddish yellow
Smokebush:
orange and pink
Stewartia:
red, yellow and orange
Sugar Maple:
red, yellow and orange
Sumac:
bright red
Sweet Birch:
golden Yellow
Sweetgum:
yellow, orange, red and purple
Viburnum:
red
Witch Hazel:
golden yellow.
The other
was tips on photography of fall colors.
After I
finished reading that article I went on to read suggested routes to see the
best foliage in OK this time of year.
Since our
part of OK had a fairly wet summer my husband and I planned a fall foliage tour
of our own. We took it this last
Saturday. While we didn’t get to spend
near the time we wanted to travel a complete route suggested in the article we
did drive down to Gore first going down I-40 and then getting off at Checotah,
home of Carrie Underwood, to get on the back
roads to drive toward goal.
I’ll admit
the first part of our trip we thought we had decided to make the trip maybe a
week too early. Many of the trees were
just starting to turn, but many things would keep us from going a week later.
Before we
hit I-40 we decided to make it a true vacation day. Usually when doing such trips we will pack a
picnic lunch so as to not spend extra on food, but we were both feeling fairly
mellow and decided we would eat out all day.
Therefore,
our first stop was at Massey‘s BBQ in Okmulgee, OK. This is one of our favorite places to
eat. We’ve been Massey’s customers since
he had the small trailer that he served lunch out of just certain days of the
week on the corner of where his restaurant now stands.
Located
right on highway 75 as you enter Okmulgee from the north on the west side of
the highway you can’t miss the red and white building. He opens at 11:00 am Monday through Saturday,
but is “closed on Sundays to observe the Lord’s day” to quote the owner.
The prices
are reasonable for bbq and the food is divine.
We both had the Big D special ground pork sandwiches a small for me and
a large for my husband. The special
includes one side and a soft drink. I
went for the deep fried corn nuggets which were sweet perfectly fried and
delicious. My husband chose the baked
beans and we shared with each other. The
meal that ran roughly $14 for the two of us filled us both beyond full.
Once we had
filled us up, we fueled up the truck and headed toward Gore, via Checotah as I
have already said.
As we left
Checotah and wound our way around the two lane back roads more and more color
slowly appeared and often we found ourselves driving through colorful tree
tunnels.
We became so
relaxed as we drove and chatted we neglected to ever take out even one of the
two cameras we had brought with us. The
photo on this blog is one taken here on our place many years ago, but it is a
prime example of the type of foliage we saw as we drove.
As we drove
through the small towns and wound our way around LakeTenkiller we took notice of various things, like Gore being the Trout Fishing Capitol of Oklahoma, the old
cemeteries, the large farm equipment harvesting the last of crops, or in some cases
already preparing the land for the cover crops of winter.
As we came
into Tahlequah, OK we were surprised by the sight of the Greenleaf Nursery.
This vast expansion of plastic hoophouses spreading for a great distance would make any
avid gardener envious.
At Tahlequah
we stopped for a $1 hot fudge sundae at McDonald’s and decided that instead of
winding further away from home we’d loop around the other side of Tenkiller Lake and head on toward home because it
was already after 3:00 pm.
Glimpses of
the lake framed by a quilt of brilliant leaves of every color were awe
inspiring. We were so busy watching the
colorful trees roll by that we were both first startled and then wished we had
stopped to take a picture of a beaver standing upright beside the road waving at
us as we went by, or maybe he was trying to hitch a ride, I’m not certain
which. He was certainly a cute fellow.
He was not
the only wildlife we saw on our drive.
The buzzards were everywhere, swooping on the wind currents, as were the
large hawks of winter and the “smoke clouds” of small birds that fly so close
together they look like waves of smoke as the swirl through the sky.
We caught sight
of a couple of deer as well as deer hunters donning their brilliant colored
vests just before twilight.
We had
originally thought to visit the Cherokee Village
in Tahlequah and some other sites, but as we drove we had time to catch up with
each other, relax, talk, and plan. There
was no need for any other entertainment. We were in fact a little reluctant to
go home.
But hunger
was starting to set in by the time we reached our farm to pick up my son and
head for Chili’s for dinner. It was
after all a vacation day.
After
lingering a long time over dinner discussing all we had seen with our son we
headed for home pleasantly tired and very relaxed. We felt that the less than
$100 we had spent on fuel and food for the day was well worth it. Who said you
need to have a rush around entertainment filled day to have a vacation.
We both now
understood my parents love for the fall foliage tours and are now considering
that a Dogwood Tour may be in our future
this next spring.
Jan who says
take a day to get reacquainted with your spouse and take a drive in the country
in OK.
No comments:
Post a Comment