ANNAPOLIS, MD - THREE CROSSES

Only a few more images from the October Country. 

This particular very small cemetery harkens back to the colonial days. If these stones could talk...

THE MOJAVE DESERT - WASTELAND

Sometimes the October Country isn't just a dark and mysterious place. 

Sometimes it's brightly lit. And a wide open space.

SANTA FE, NM - THE CITY PARK IN THE OCTOBER COUNTRY

Have you noticed, when watching scary television shows and horror movies, how many times the unspeakable happens in the middle of city parks? It's in the October Country? 

I mean, who goes walking there after dark?

Shhhhh...was that someone in the bushes up ahead? Why don't we just have a seat and wait.

WESTERN WYOMING - COLD ROAD AHEAD

Welcome to Monday. Time to return to work. The October Country isn't just darkness and things that go bump in the night, it's also the fears which unconsciously, *ahem*, drive us.

Long lonely roads ahead. The waning day turns evening into darkness. Is that a storm rolling in? A hitchhiker up ahead? The miles slide by with no oncoming traffic in this cold forbidding landscape through a strange part of the world.

These too are the makings of our nightmares. 

Maybe there's a little town ahead where they serve a warm cup of coffee and maybe a friendly smile. 

Maybe.

ORLANDO, FL -- THE OLD COUNTRY

There. Across the lake. The castle.

Doesn't look too dark and forbidding, does it?

Are those ravens?

SANTA MONICA, CA - LONELY STRETCH OF ROAD

(I'm having real fun with the monthlong OCTOBER COUNTRY theme. Can you tell?)

The dark and empty street is fodder for the imagination. What is calming and reassuring during the day becomes mysterious and menacing when the sun is down.

Our breath catches, and every little movement catches our eye. 

Don't worry. It's only five blocks to your home. That might just have been a cat you heard.

What could possibly happen?

ANNAPOLIS, MD -- OCTOBER COUNTRY IN WINTER

There is little more worrisome than to be outside on a bitterly cold morning, lost in a strange place.

Like the Twilight Zone, denizens of the October Country are more than happy to take advantage...

Bring a heavy coat and gloves. And a torch.

LOS ANGELES, CA - A DARK COURTYARD

'Tis Monday. In October Country.

A dark courtyard somewhere. 

In Los Angeles, actually. At LA's famous Union Station. 

Even in the middle of everything, you can be alone.

SANTA ROSA, CA - CRY OF THE SARUS CRANE

Another October Country destination.

Too many horror movies these days center around young adults at camp.

Perhaps the writers are simply reliving their own horrible Summer seasons away from family, listening to things that went bump in the night.

In this case, however, the encampment is of a permanent and much more enjoyable time: wine country's SAFARI WEST park, near Santa Rosa. Here it's not the boogeyman who will get you, it's the wild animals in natural settings just a handful of feet away.

Nothing predatory can get to you, but the unearthly cry of a Sarus Crane (a slender five foot tall bird) at 2 o'clock in the morning will certainly bring you to your feet.