I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Virginia, D.C., and Maryland. On Thursday, it was things to do in Denver when you’re dead tired. I knew the trip was coming, but I didn’t worry about it as far as this die-ary went because I knew from experience that these trips can enhance and even define the season sometimes.
Business trips during previous seasons have taken me to Los Angeles, where I got to see the Tim Burton exhibit. In Berlin, I documented every trace of Halloween that I could find (plus descended into a courtly crypt, found the cemetery where the Brothers Grimm are buried, and side-tripped to the Czech Republic to see the Bone Church). Heck, even a trip to D.C. during the first Halloween Die-ary in 2017 nabbed me a pumpkin donut.
And while I knew that this particular business trip would have little, if any, downtime, I figured I could still do a Halloween scavenger hunt, keeping my eyes carved for any traces of Autumn or Halloween I might pass in these lands that are supposed to be sharing the same September with me. Kind of like I did on this business trip to Atlanta during last year’s season.
But in three days across three states and a district, I didn’t see a single frame of Fall. Not a store window decoration or a fall cocktail on a menu. Heck, the temps in Denver were above 90 degrees. Of course, I didn’t go out looking for it (I didn’t even have time to watch a scary movie in any of my hotel rooms), but I thought I’d at least stumble across something I could photograph and rhapsodize about for 400 words.
During my day in Denver, I tried a little harder by making plans to eat at a death-themed restaurant built inside an old mortuary. It would have been the perfect place for my thirty-seventh Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead joke of the day and a great fit for the season. But it was closed during the hour we had to eat before heading to the airport. I still ended up at a strange restaurant for dinner, though, one called the Buckhorn Exchange, which has been on my OTIS Map of Oddities for a while. But it’s more Hunting Season than Halloween Season.
I mean, I would have liked him better with a headless rider on his back, but I’ll take a blue demon at this time of year if I can’t have a black and orange one.
