Favorite Fall Trips
Autumn hit me yesterday with memories of some great travels
Living in the Midwest in these climate crisis days is different. My birthday is October 22nd, and for a long time, I had a fairly even split between years when it would be summertime hot on that day, and others where we’d have snow. Even a blizzard once (1996).
Now, I just anticipate warm. Next Saturday, my bestie and I are going to see Jonathan Richman, and I’m already checking the forecast. High of 71 and rainy? I can probably get away with wearing my cute mesh sundress one last time before it gets too cold.
But yesterday, even though it was sunny and in the high 70s, autumn snuck up on me in the form of a Bobby’s caramel pecan apple, one of my favorite annual treats. The puckery sweetness of the apple, drenched in gooey, buttery caramel and earthy roasted pecans, strikes so many chords of nostalgia. Since they’re only available in autumn, it’s also the flavor that flips my internal switch to fall mode, and that makes me happy.
I’m bummed that I won’t be starting my New Orleans autumn road trip a week from today as I’d planned. But that’s fine. I’ve got Chicago and Monterey and Kansas City in November. And I have memories and plans for other fall experiences. Here are some of my favorites:
Asheville Yes, Asheville, North Carolina, has a quaint downtown and more breweries per capita than any other city in the U.S. That wasn’t what impressed me when I spent my birthday in nearby Weaverville in 2018. This was my first travel birthday, and I was pretty glum as I was still raw from the recent loss of my grandmother.
I wanted alone time, and this was a perfect fit even though it happened because of a cancelled trip. A friend with a vacation condo on the Carolina coast was gracious enough to offer the use of her place, so I booked a flight into Raleigh-Durham. But then Hurricane Florence battered the coast and condo. My friend and her kids were fine, but with the condo and much of the shore in cleanup mode, I decided to keep my flight and go west instead of east, to Asheville.
I stayed in a cottage on a farm, where my neighbors included a pack of goats, a flock of chickens, a black cat, and a pair of Great Pyrenees guard dogs who decided I was okay. About an hour after I arrived, I was talking to the animals over the pasture fence, and my host overheard me. Seeing as I’m clearly a deranged animal person, he told me I was welcome to go into the pasture and give my leftover food to the goats.
This is really all I need for a good time.
Especially after Asheville was severely flooded and neglected last year, I can’t assume every place I went and loved is still there. The goat farm is still renting the cottage, which makes me very happy. Also thrilled to see that Firestorm Books and Battlecat Coffee survived. Both radical-leaning organizations are in West Asheville, a bit removed from the more hip and chic downtown. That’s where I felt most at home.
On my birthday, I did pie flights and coffee at the adorable Baked Pie Shop. Because while I love cake, I don’t skip the chance for good pie since it’s harder to find than good cake. Then I spent the day taking my first-ever mineral water soak, which felt like being reborn in the woods.
Because I was nice to the Enterprise Rental Car agent at the airport, I was gifted an upgrade to a BMW for my birthday trip. So of course, post-soak, I hit the Blue Ridge Parkway and drove up Mount Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi River. I watched snow flurries swirling on top of the mountain, beginning the process of hiding and breaking down the splendid leaf colors.
Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Abiquiu, New Mexico In recent years, I’ve made two ill-advised autumn trips to New Mexico, and I didn’t regret either one. The first was to Albuquerque and Santa Fe for my birthday in 2020. I know, pre-Covid vaccine travel was dumb, and I won’t offer any excuses. I was also extremely immobile because this was before my knee replacements, and I was in a bad way. But autumn in New Mexico is temperate with the perfect nighttime chill in the air. I spent my time on a lot of coffeehouse patios, taking some incredible drives, including the Turquoise Trail, and treating myself to a phenomenal James Beard Award-winning restaurant for birthday dinner (Sazon).
Speaking of Georgia O’Keeffe (Okay, I wasn’t, but you saw the photo), her Santa Fe museum allowed socially distanced tours. I dreamed of visiting this museum since it opened. Going through it alone was an incredible experience. I cried a lot.
I returned to New Mexico in September 2022, equipped with two new knees and excited to have what felt like a divinely-tailored event: a music festival headlined by Patti Smith at Ghost Ranch, Georgia O’Keeffe’s longtime home outside tiny Abiquiu, New Mexico. While I was unable to do a lot of stuff like horse trail rides and hikes due to surgery recovery and the then-unnamed ailment that kept me dizzy all the time, I still had an incredible time. I stayed in a bare-bones room with two twin beds in one of the ranch’s bunkhouses. Bonus: my door was about ten feet from backstage. I took my room’s lone chair outside and enjoyed the music and a peak vantage point. I even took naps in my bed while listening to acts like Mandolin Orange and The Head and the Heart. I felt like hell, but I got to enjoy the music in comfort.
I didn’t spend all my time in my bunkhouse and porch. Just most of it. On the other side of the ranch, I got a massage with piney morning breezes blowing in the windows. Then I drove around, recognizing mountains and landscapes from O’Keeffe paintings that were so beautiful they brought me to tears.
I had a Big Artist Moment when I considered the unbelievable beauty outside Ms. O’Keeffe’s door—as breathtaking as her paintings are, she had to know that there was an approximation of the beauty of the mountains and sky. It was a lesson in letting go of perfection and creating anyway. I needed that.
St. Louis Yeah, that’s right. I’m going to sing the praises of visiting my city in autumn. It might be hard to catch, since the leaves changing colors and the cooler weather have become less and less predictable in recent years. But it does arrive, sooner or later, every year. We get excited when the temperatures are in the 70s during the day and almost freezing at night.
If you’re a baseball fan, there’s always a chance you can catch a playoff game in the fall in St. Louis. I don’t think you can this year. I’m not sporty, and my little bit of sports attention is going to the Dodgers of my adopted home, and the Cubs, because I want to see a bunch of jacked up, victory-hungry Cubs fans take on ICE. And there may or may not be hexes involved. We’ll see.
St. Louis is one of those places that attracts people who love seasons. We have them all, and autumn is spectacular. Leaf peeping while strolling through Forest Park might be a little different this year, after the damage of May’s tornadoes, but it’ll still a marvel. Maybe even more so now.
Eating in St. Louis in autumn … you can’t miss. Get the caramel apple as big as your face from Bobby’s. And a frozen custard concrete with a whole piece of pumpkin pie blended into it at Ted Drewes. Always good for barbecue, this is the perfect time for smoky flavors. Plus, this is a Midwestern autumnal dream with pumpkin patches, hayrides, apple-picking, corn mazes, festivals (my part of St. Louis is currently recovering from its annual chili cookoff, also known as the hardest day for the sewer system), and more. Find someone with a fire pit in their backyard, bring some beer and hot dogs to cook over the fire, and you’ve got yourself a night.
It’s getting chilly! You can warm me up when you buy me a coffee.