And you thought it wasn’t going to happen. After all the delays, false starts, bad weather and schedule conflicts the Leaf Peepers Tour, aka The Last Dance, was finally held on October 27. Three die-hard tourers, yup the number dwindled to three, pressed on, starting in heavy fog. Olde Mother Nature presented obstacles as long as she could, but finally relented and presented us with a beautiful sunny day.

The foliage was definitely past the peak. The colors changed dramatically in one day the previous week, only to have the trees stripped by rain and wind the next day. But, there was enough surviving and newly changed foliage to provide us with a passable show.

Barney Gaylord, Bill Reece and I covered a 240 mile circuit that took us across Jo-Daviess County to lunch at Galena, on to Wisconsin for the neo-traditional ice cream interlude at Dickeyville, a cold one at the Potosi Brewery and a taste of really good cheese at a factory in Beeville. The roads included some familiar paths from earlier tours blended in with new ones, all selected for scenes that provided good leaf peeping in addition to the fun factor (if only there had been more color!). And they were fun. Lots of hills and curves, the good old Georgetown bridge, tree canopies and wildlife. We got a close look at a Bald Eagle! Plus, Bill got his driving “fix” in his new steed.

We had a really good time, proved the concept of the one-day color tour is sound and resolved to try again next year.

Dan Herman