[Nah, didn’t happen?!  Did it?  Well, on Saturday, October 17, it was an absolutely perfect mid-fall day here in Vacationland USA that featured Applefest at Carlos Creek Winery followed by the section 8-5A semi-final football game between the Alexandria Cardinals and the Bemidji Lumberjacks.  The kind of day that literally cried out for pictures . . . and lots of ’em!  😉   ]

[Classmate Gary Ekdahl leading a revival meeting? Well sorta . . . he was auctioneering a quilt extravaganza at Applefest!]

[“Obert?” Where does it come from? Nobody knows? I finally had my DNA checked, and then met “cousin” Louie at the Applefest. It appears we are 14 percent pumpkin! Not really a surprise, we did have an “Orange” Obert in the family in the 1800’s (seriously!)]

[Local superstars from the Hasz family – Megan, Bethany, and Doug – find a willing customer in the Super at Applefest. Doug then sat with us at the Cardinal football game that night and showed his chops by mentioning Bemidji ran a sweep every time the halfback lined up two yards behind the quarterback and went up the middle every time he lined up one yard back. He was right – I wonder if the coaches noted that?]

[The Super with a pumpkin toast to flowers.]

[Well of course we had to!]

[We must be getting close to some sort of record for the number of beautiful weekends in a row.]

[The Super catches Julie and Bruce from all angles for her standard Facebook postings of “Missing U at . . . “]

[Our wild and crazy friends from Ashby and Watertown, SD, were seeing (and hearing) Patchouli for the first time and we blown away!]     ]

[THE MAKING OF A MUSIC FAN!  She was so cute, as were the Watertown group, that we predicted a guitar was going to be on her wish list soon.]

[OK, now they had to dance . . . ]

[BREAKING NEWS! It appears our dynamic duo may be playing the GUTHRIE in mid-May next year. Stayed tuned for updates!]

[Then it was a mad dash to the football game.  Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.]

[Arriving to coincide with sunset.]

[The lonely vigil of the sports photographer . . . oh, I used that line already?]

[Our offensive stalwarts, quarterback Jaran Roste (1) and halfback Micah Christenson (22) lead the Cards onto the field.]

[When we played the Lumberjacks at their place earlier this year, we came back from a 28 – 7 halftime deficit to win 57 – 49.  It figured to be a shootout!]

[The ‘Jacks ran their halfback, Logan Hatfield, up the middle on the first play. He rushed for over 2,200 yards this year (in 8 games), included 393 against us the first game! We played great defense against him until the 4th quarter when we had a big lead – he rushed for 244 yards on 38 carries, but I’m sure over 100 of that came after the game was decided.]

[Now, this is the way to start a football game. Hold Bemidji to a 3-and-out, have Micah Christenson (22) return the punt 68 yards for a touchdown. Since I didn’t “catch” him from the beginning the first time, the 2nd time he went back to receive the punt I was going to follow him all the way – well, obviously not another TD but it was a good one as I recall. (And sorry folks, tried to watch our Vikings on Sunday – they’re not only mediocre, worse – they’re boring. Even the Super (who likes football more than I do) switched over to a black-and-white movie . . . )]

[Roste launches a successful pass downfield (see the ball?).  Not sure who caught but it was nice gain.]

[Micah goes left, cuts back for about a 5-yarder.  Bemidji was keying on him and actually held him to “only” 134 yards on 25 carries.]

[Roste throws a nice out, getting us close . . . ]

[Looks like a short gain . . . did we fumble?]

[In the 2nd quarter now, Christenson sweeps right.]

[The Cards are driving . . . is it a touchdown?]

[Roste looks and fires left as the half winds down . . .    ]

[We had the lead into the 3rd quarter, but based on the previous game figured more fireworks were on the way.]

[The biggest difference between the two teams was our ability to run and . . . pass.  Roste threw for over 170 yards in the 2nd half.]

[This was the beautiful 57-yard TD pass over the middle to Aarin Willander (88) that gave us a two touchdown lead.  Aarin is one of our leading receivers, but one of our strengths is we have several ‘go to’ guys.]

[Micah goes right, setting up another touchdown.]

[Scores were coming fast and furious by the 4th quarter as our lead would vary between 21 to 28 points.  Our defense obviously was not as keyed up down the stretch so it turned into a bit of a track meet.  A key was when Hatfield fumbled and we recovered on our 2-yard line – it took us two running plays to score, a 21-yarder by Christenson followed by a 77-yard TD by Roste.  At one point there were four touchdowns within a 6-minute stretch. Micah, Jaran, and receiver Brayden Amundson (7), who is still a bit nicked up, share congrats as the game winds down.]

[Warm up the bus, turn out the lights, the party’s over.  Please remove all the debris from your area; it was a wild one!]

I like clean ladies and nice ladies.  ~  Lawrence Welk

Up next:  It will be a surprise to me too.  Girls soccer hosts Sartell in section semi-final on Tuesday; boys’ soccer will be at Sartell the same night for a section semi-final.  Card footballers play the No. 1-seeded Moorhead Spuds at Fergus Friday night for the section championship.