So, once again we find ourselves hitting the road. Yup, we be traveling. The reasons are mixed . . . we’re attending a funeral and a birthday celebration; the funeral today, the birthday celebration tomorrow.

The person who died is . . . was the husband of one of Melisa’s cousins, and he was my age.

The birthday celebration tomorrow is for one of Melisa’s aunts . . . celebrating her 100th birthday, she is.

And that’s all Iwant to share about those two events . . . so let me get to some photos.

That’s right, I’m in Amish country. As much as it’s interesting seeing these 1-HP contraptions lumbering down the road, it’s not exactly fun getting stuck behind them.

Luckily, we’re not in any hurry, but if we lived around here, I might be a tad irritated . . . especially when I have to drive over horse droppings, some of them fresh.

. . . I like the horses, but they should wear dipers.

Almost every place we go, stores have pumpkins for sale. It doesn’t matter what kind of store, there are pumpkins out in front.

They look big, no?

There’s always large pumpkins, but I rarely find them photogenic.

Unless they look like this:

Again, these are small and probably designed or decorative uses.

That’s probably not a pumpkin, although it was in a pumpkin bin.

A squash of some kind, I’d wager, as are these . . .

If not those, surely these . . .

These next duck-like things are gourds, methinks . . .

So, I get it . . . fall is in the air, Halloween just around the corner . . . which means many stores have large displays of Halloween decorations.

This next photo was taken at the Home Depot while waiting for them to shake the crap out of the two cans of paint I’d purchased (I don’t know about other people, but I prefer crapless paint).

Let me tell you, these are large displays . . .

. . . wait . . . Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is that?!

No! . . . is it? Why, yes! . . . Christmas stuff before Halloween!

The workers give the space a sense of scale.

I might sound surprised, but a few places had Christmas stuff out even before they added the Halloween displays.

And, it’s not just Home Depot. It’s most stores I’ve gone to. Here’s the Sam’s Club display (Costco’s displays were even larger, but this is a small Sam’s Club).

Halloween is the only holiday that affects us . . . on Halloween, we sit with the lights off for a few hours, hoping no one rings the doorbell.

Other holidays, we can just ignore, but Halloween comes a-knocking . . . unless we turn off all the lights.

Anyway, since we’re traveling, something unusual happened . . . we ate out. The Cracker Barrel, to be specific. They are hit and miss, but the odds are fairly good for a passable meal in most of their establishments.

So, I decided to start a new trend . . . you know how many people like to post photos of the food they’re about to eat?

Well, I now introduce you to the pre-meal photo!

That, my dear readers, is where our food will be place once it’s prepared.

I’m hoping the trend catches on so that I can go down in history for something.

But, yes, since I snapped it as a joke, here’s the meal . . .

We didn’t finish it all, so we’ll have snacks for tomorrow.

Anyway, although it’s early, I’m kind-of worn out, so I’ll end this with a reminder . . .

Please remember to read and vote for the Round 8 Title Challenge stories. The poll and links to the stories can be found here:

Title Writing Prompt Challenge Round 8 Voting — “Dear John”

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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