from Chris
During the week, I drive north from Fredericksburg to western New York, where I teach at a small university. Autumn hit its full peak there last week. Although I saw it coming for weeks, it still always seems to creep up too fast!
In Fredericksburg, though, autumn comes a full month later and can last well into November.
That means the hills of western New York are covered in a calico blanket even as central Virginia remains verdant and green.
The drive takes me seven hours, and I cover a lot of distance—some 360 miles. Week by week, I see autumn sweep farther and farther south.
As a result, I get to enjoy the full-color splendor of fall for almost two months: from when the leaves begin to change in early September in western New York until they finally drop from the branches in mid-November in central Virginia.
I’ve enjoyed this miracle for two autumns now—so much so that I’ve really looked forward for a repeat performance this autumn. It certainly makes that long car drive a lot easier to bear.