Cousins Arrive July 20th - July 24th 2017

Carol and Nelson, cousins from New Jersey,  are temporarily empty nesters, and as such, were finally able to make a road trip to visit with us.  Their daughter, Annie, is currently working in San Antonio, TX, for the summer, and son Matt had the fantastic opportunity to study in Australia for five months.  We can't really say we had "company" because Carol and Nelson blended right in, just two more household members.  Nelson was a tremendous help to Bob on several of the "two man jobs" that needed doing, and Carol was a wonderful second set of hands in the kitchen.   We appreciated their help and that they made the 800+ mile drive to see us.

                             They arrived Thursday afternoon.  Friday morning we took a ride to Issaquena Falls and Stumphouse Tunnel northwest of Walhalla.  Here we are on the trail to the falls.

 

                   It hadn't occurred to us that the summer foliage would obscure the view.

There was just a small window in which to see the falls near the top of the cascade.  These were the first waterfalls Bob and I checked out when we moved to the area in 2015, but that was in the early spring, and the view was spectacular.

Just up the road from the falls is Stumphouse Tunnel...the tunnel cut into a mountain in the 1850's in the hopes of having a railroad link to Ohio.  That couldn't be completed because of the difficulty breaking down the granite walls.

No one wanted to venture too far into the dark cavern, especially since it got darker the further you went in, and the likelihood of encountering the resident bats.

           Nelson is checking out one of the flatbed cars used to remove the granite.

 

Erosion has left an intricate pattern in the nearby landscape.  Later, we drove into Seneca and enjoyed pizza at Peppino's.  Both Carol and Nelson agreed it was really good.

 

The next morning, we made an excursion to another lovely park...Chau Ram Falls.

Throughout their trip, Carol had prompted Nelson to pose for different photos.  Here he is doing a swan dive.

He should have dived in to retrieve Carol's binoculars which tumbled down the rock and into the water.  While the guys were trying to figure out a good way to get down to them without slipping on the rock, Carol scurried down and lifted the binocs out of the stream.

Ramsey Creek is the headwater of the falls which tumble into the Chau River.  Here is a perfect spot for trout fishing.

A suspension bridge spans  Chau River and leads to various trails and picnic spots.

We knew it would be too hot to picnic here today, but it is a special place that we wanted to share with Carol and Nelson.

The only way to beat the heat is in the pool, and Carol and I made sure we spent time in it each afternoon while the guys worked on reconfiguring the chain link fence in our back yard and playing with Bob's latest toy, a 1950 Ford pick up hot rod that needs a lot of work!

Lots of work!

No visit would be complete without eating at the Townville Café, so we had breakfast there Monday morning before Carol and Nelson had to return.  Perhaps they will be able to visit us again soon.