For as long as I can remember, I have celebrated the coming of autumn and Halloween by visiting a pumpkin patch called “Pumpkinville” out in the country. This pumpkin patch not only has pumpkins, but also hay bale mazes, giant slides, pony rides, a petting zoo, and piles of fresh popcorn and apples. As we had a bit of free time today, Bobby and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful afternoon by making the annual trek out to Pumpkinville. However, when we arrived we were startled to see a sign posted on the entrance gate announcing that the price of admission for an adult had risen to $11, which we felt was far too much to pay for an event that really wasn’t all that fun anyway.

Instead, we settled for visiting the country store attached to Pumpkinville and selected a pumpkin, three jars of apple butter, and a handful of caramel apples. We both agreed that it was money well spent and in the car on the way home, I remarked it had been a fun, frugal trip.

“Yeah,” Bobby agreed. “And maybe next year we can afford to go in.”