Thanks Keith,
I figured you'd get it. One theory I heard this past week, whilst carpooling up the Clark Fork River valley towards Bozo-man was the sudden cold circumvented the seasonal formation of the abscission layer in the leaf stem, which in turn circumvented the unmasking of the red/yellow pigments that have been hiding behind green chlorophyll all year.
The other conversation had to do with who had the best pie & coffee between Missoula and Bozo-man?
Nice picture, Cardinal Red

j

h