The gas needle was sitting right on the half mark when we backed out of the carport last Saturday at eleven. I'd made Tyler a deal over breakfast: we could go anywhere he wanted for the afternoon, as long as we were home before the needle hit a quarter.
Half a tank in my CR-V is about seven gallons. With gas around $2.80 here, that's $19.60 worth of driving. The CR-V gets close to 28 miles to the gallon on back roads, so we had roughly 190 miles to play with. That's a lot of northeast Missouri.
Our loop
We headed north out of Macon and turned off the highway as soon as we could. That's the only real rule of our fall drives: no four-lanes. The county blacktops up here wind through bean fields and pasture, and late September is harvest. We followed a combine for a mile and a half at about 12 miles an hour, and nobody behind us minded.
The leaves were just starting. The sumac along the ditches had gone red, the walnut trees were dropping their leaves early like they always do, and every few miles there was a hedge tree with those big green hedge apples piled underneath. The real color up here usually comes the second and third weekends of October, so this was the preview.
Our first stop was a covered bridge an hour or so from home. Missouri only has a handful of covered bridges left, and standing in one feels a little like standing in an old barn over a creek. We ate the sandwiches I'd packed at a picnic table nearby and drank coffee out of the thermos while Tyler read every word on the historical sign out loud to me.
On the way back we found a pumpkin stand off a gravel road: a hay wagon full of pumpkins, a hand-painted sign and a cash box with a slot in the lid. Nobody around. Pie pumpkins were $3 and the big carving ones were $5. We took two pie pumpkins and one big one for the front stoop and put $11 in the box. I love that kind of trust, and I always carry small bills on these drives for exactly this reason.
The last stop was an orchard stand selling apples and cider out of a little barn. A half gallon of cider was $7, and cider donuts were $1 each, so we got two. Tyler ate his before we got back to the car. I made mine last until the next county line.
What the afternoon cost
| What | Cost |
|---|---|
| Gas, about 150 miles (5.4 gallons) | $15.12 |
| Lunch and coffee from home | $0 |
| Two pie pumpkins and a carving pumpkin | $11 |
| Half gallon of cider | $7 |
| Two cider donuts | $2 |
| Total | $35.12 |
We pulled back in around 5:30 with the needle a hair above the quarter mark. The loop came out to about 150 miles, so we didn't even use the whole half tank. Our deal held, and Tyler didn't have to hear about it.
The pumpkins still have work to do. The two pie pumpkins will turn into puree for a couple of pies and a batch of muffins, which saves us a few cans at the store. The big one is out on the stoop, and Moose has howled at it twice.
How we keep it cheap
None of this is complicated, but it's what keeps a drive like this at $35 instead of $85. We pack lunch and coffee before we leave. We set the gas limit at the start, so the turnaround point isn't a debate. We carry small cash for the honor-box stands, which almost never take cards. We only buy what we'll eat or use that week. And we skip anything with an admission booth or a gift shop, because that's where a cheap afternoon turns into a regular one.
For comparison, a Saturday in Columbia with lunch out and a little shopping runs us $50 or more before anything goes in a grocery cart. This was half that, and I'd take a hay wagon full of pumpkins over a parking lot any day.
If you're anywhere near our corner of the state, the next three weekends are the best ones for color. We'll be out there again, same deal, same needle.
