October 21-22 – Powhatan and Richmond

 I relaxed at my sister’s place in Powhatan, a rural county in central Virginia to which she recently moved. She and her partner live in a spacious house surrounded by acres of deciduous trees; theirs are just beginning to turn color. Her younger daughter is living with them, along with three dogs and five chickens, young hens just beginning to lay eggs. Jennifer has a part-time job at the YMCA teaching swimming and lifeguarding. I met her one day after her shift and we swam laps in the pool now covered in a bubble for winter.

On Wednesday, Jennifer’s birthday, we drove into Richmond, about a hour away, and visited Carytown, a hip street lined with restaurants and shops. We had a delicious Thai lunch at Mama’s Siam, bought sweets at I Love Chocolate, a giant candy store, and pet a small pig at The Stolen Pig, a shop with an eclectic mix of stuff. We also stopped at the Tredegar Iron Works where canons and other munitions were manufactured during the civil war. Richmond was the capital of the Confederate States of America and it’s capture lead to the end of the war.

 October 23 – Crabtree Falls

We drove a couple hours to the George Washington National Forest, southwest of Shenandoah, and took a four-mile round-trip hike along Crabtree Creek. The trail, covered with fall leaves, led though a beautiful yellow-leafed forest. Along the way we saw many cascades and waterfalls, cumulatively forming the highest vertical-drop cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi.

Apparently I damaged more than the lens when I dropped my camera in Pisa. The automatic functions have been failing one at a time and I’ve now resorted to using it in full manual mode. Fortunately the light meter is still working; I hope it lasts until I return home and can send it in for repairs.