Driving to the Moon

This spring, in addition to the outstanding weather, northeast Ohio has been treated to some boffo night time planetary shows.   If you missed the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus several weeks ago, you should be ashamed.  Look up every now and then.  I am not an astronomer, but I know spectacular when I see it.  You can do it!!!  Put that smart phone away and treat yourself to the best free show in town.  The almost month long display ended with both planets lining up next to a crescent moon, mother nature taking her well deserved curtain call.

Tonight we got another sky show.  My wife and were driving home from Cleveland just a little past dusk.  As we got onto the Ohio Turnpike from Route 44, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sunset was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.  Cars slowed down on the on ramp…talk about distracted driving; which was upstaged as we turned east on the turnpike proper. Behind the trees you could see this mammoth moon just beginning to peak over the horizon.  It was a brilliant harvest orange matching the colors of the sunset behind us.

As we drove, we could see glimpses of this moon behind the tree line…if only we could get a clear patch to see the entire thing.  We could see it rising behind the trees, getting bigger and bigger.  Then the entire moon was above the horizon, still behind the trees.  Suddenly the turnpike curved to the southeast, and there it was…dead on in front of us….the road leading straight into it.  The traffic slowed down all at one time as other drivers were stunned at the site.  For a few minutes, we were driving to the moon.

What a magnificent show nature has put on for us this year.  The early warm weather has brought out brilliant flowers, green lush grass.  The buds on the trees are out early.  And they are red and orange almost giving the trees the appearance that it is fall instead of spring.  Beautiful!!!

The pear trees were gorgeous.  A friend of mine asked me what those trees were with the white leaves.  I laughed to myself at the faux pas, but then it dawned on me maybe he was right!!!  What a poetic way to describe flowers on a flowering tree…white leaves.

We are truly blessed to live here.  There is no more spectacular seasonal scenery within driving distance anywhere else in the United States than here.   Waterscapes abound from Lake Erie to Lake Newport.  New England has nothing on Geauga County.  Drive up Chagrin River Road and see the horse farms.  Kentucky, eat your heart out.  Parks abound from the Cuyahoga National Forest to Mill Creek Park.  Everywhere you look there are trees and scenic vignettes.   We take the back way into Cleveland and cut over from the turnpike to Route 422 on Route 44.  Past Mantua are some flat lands, and some breathtaking lakes and wetlands that are worth stopping to appreciate.  And the bluebells should be out in Poland Woods.  The blue carpet is one of a kind if you haven’t seen it.  Even the man made beauty is spectacular.  Look across the Ohio River to the breathtaking Pittsburgh cityscape.

And the show is non-seasonal, whether it is flowers in summer or leaves in the fall or snow over Fellows Garden or Mahoning County’s abundance of crab apple trees in the spring…it goes 365 days 24/7.

I know its cliché.  But everyone, from time to time, should take some time to smell the roses.  And while you appreciating the stuff on the ground, don’t forget to look up.  Maybe one day you too will find yourself driving to the moon.