I went to visit my older brother and his longtime girlfriend this past weekend. I flew to Dallas*, then we drove ~4 hrs to Smithville, Oklahoma (just north of Broken Bow Lake and the Ouachita National Forest) where we rented a cabin. We swam in the lake, rented jet skis (fun, but I made myself a bit nauseous, and as we passed campers on the lakeside, I couldn’t help feeling like I was the annoying them with my loud motor), and ate really bad mexican food (oklahoma-mex). My brother fired off a few left-over bottle-rockets. We took an evening walk down the road, past the cemetery, lit here-and-there with fireflies, and were treated to a spooky orange moonrise.

I love this end-of-summer/early-autumn time of year.

Here are a few sky/landscape photos I snapped on my iPhone — sunrise, ~6:50am, Santa Fe:

My wife dropped me off at the new train station out on the highway. There was a “sun spot” (a.k.a., “sun dog”) in the sky:

The soft, moisture-rich clouds of Oklahoma (quite unlike the dry-air clouds of New Mexico**):

Morning fog:

Evening mist:

* When I arrived in Dallas, I was greeted by a wave of ~93° humidity…ugh. But, in all seriousness, my brother thought it felt noticeably cooler and Fallish!

I’m glad I don’t live in Dallas.

** My wife tells me that my Oklahoma cloud picture doesn’t look all that different from my New Mexico cloud pictures, but let me assure you, the clouds are different.