X Marks the Carabel
It was a very quiet Sunday morning on Carabel. The best way to describe its location is to go to the point where Hilliard and Madison cross with an “X” and head south. From that point Carabel heads all the way to Interstate 90 before crossing a bridge and turning into W 159th Street. When I got to the highway it was so desolate I snapped a pic without a single car in view.
Planted in almost all of the tree lawns on this street are Sweet Gum Trees. In doing a little research I learned they are absolutely beautiful in the fall. They have large star shaped leaves that turn yellow, orange, red and purple. The only downside to these trees – they drop a plethora of hard, spiky seed pods over the winter. The sidewalks and tree lawns were covered with them. I grapped a handful for the featured image.
When I did my Google search of “spiky seed pods” to confirm they were Sweet Gum Trees, the first listing was an Etsy advertisement where someone was selling packs of 8 pods for $2.99. If people were actually buying them at that price I could have collected my $5,000 donation goal in about an hour this morning.
I also noticed on my bike ride that the uphill climb from Lake Road to Madison seemed much easy than when I started my journeys. Perhaps the small painted stone I found amongst the spiky seeds was right, I am getting “Stronger than Yesterday”.
