A Cold Day at the Corn Maze

 

Holy Cow!  Did we ever have a change in weather.  We went from 82 degrees last week to an extremely windy 48 degrees on Saturday.  Even so, our family met up with some friends at a nearby corn maze and pumpkin patch.  At least the rain stopped, and the sun peeked through once in awhile.  Otherwise, I think I would have sat it out in the small, heated building where children could come decorate cupcakes and drink hot cocoa.

 

This was the way to enter the maze, and we all went through.  It was much higher and longer than it looks in this photo.

 

Once you've made it through the tunnel slide, it's corn stalks for as far as the eye can see.

 

Every year, the owners have a different theme, and you must find your way through the maze to get to the clues.  Once you've found all the clues, you can answer the riddles or questions.  And then you can win a prize.

 

This year's theme was presidents, and there was a crossword puzzle full of silly (but true) questions about past presidents.

 

The clues do not, however, help you find your way out of the corn maze.

 

You're either on your own to do that, or you can follow others and hope they know their way.  

 

Or you can cheat a little bit by climbing up certain platforms and survey the entire maze from above.  The corn here was actually quite short and scrawny this year, so I could see my teenagers' heads from most everywhere.  I usually can't do that.

 

Not to mention that between our younger daughter's neon pink coat and our older daughter's bright pink stocking cap, they were fairly easy to spot.

 

Once we made it out, crossword puzzles were completed by the more studious members of the group.

 

While others had go-cart races (or hitched a ride.)

 

And certain teenage boys played King of the Haybales.

 

We finally got in a hayride, and I managed to get one good picture of my kiddos.

 

Good thing because the rest of the ride just got ridiculous...and cold.  Did I mention the cold already?

 

As usual, we had a great time, but when it was time to go, my kids came running up the hill.  They were either freezing, or they were coming for the hot apple cider and whoopie pies I had just purchased from an Amish woman who had braved the elements and set up a bake sale table (which was blowing away.)  For those of you from other parts of the world, if you haven't ever had a homemade whoopie pie, you are seriously missing out.

It's a tad bit warmer here today, but that wind has remained and broken off several trees up here.  In fact, as we were driving up our lane after the corn maze and a grocery run, we slammed on the brakes because a dead tree had just come down across the lane right in front of us.  We walked our groceries the rest of the way to our house and were fortunate enough to have an Amish neighbor with a chainsaw at home who walked down and cut it into movable pieces.  We're thankful that it missed any of us who were out that afternoon and that no trees fell on any of our goats or sheep who were yards away eating peacefully in the pasture.  

With the colorful leaves blown to the ground, dark skies by 6:00, and weather cool enough to pull out our winter coats, it definitely feels like fall here in the Alleghenies now.  But I'm not complaining.