Cincinnati Portsmouth Thursday

I woke up (why is it so early?) and headed out for my last pre-Pig run.  4 miles.  Nice.  I did the mighty hill next to my parents house of course.  I need all the practice I can get.  This course is not flat.

Dad and I packed up the car and headed to Portsmouth to see Gramma.

Coming up Ohio-32 into the Appalachian Foothills

We're here!

Gramma wanted to go to a new cafe in the Bonnyfiddle part of town. I had an awesome grilled cheese. (Ranch and bacon!) Then we went down to see the floods, flood walls and murals. It was a beautiful day for a walk. And the views were most impressive.

Apparently someone to whom I am related worked here for $0.05/hour at some point in his life

The place we ate used to be a storefront and they turned it into a cafe and kept most of the original decor

Another great building with great fixtures!

Dogwood!

Pigs are apparently a big deal in Portsmouth too!

Welcome.  We have murals.  And bathrooms!

The Ohio River as with all the other rivers in this part of the country is at a very high flood stage.

This is one of my favorite murals; ships heading to and from the Erie Canal.

This is a mural; for reference, this is what the river and that bridge look like when not at flood stage.  For example, you can see the pilings on this bridge pretty clearly.  And the trees are on shore.  Where they belong.

Walking down the street looking at murals and talking...

We headed back to Gramma's for a pre-road snack. We also installed a new hose. It was during this event that Dad and I had a little exchange about effort and quality of work when doing home improvements. The leak's not that bad it's fine. No; seriously; I know you hate home improvements but you can do better than this. I also got my first and hopefully last trip into the attic to inspect Gramma's leaky roof.

As with all trips to Gramma's, there was some manufactured drama. Some of it come in the form of a news story about someone to whom I may or may not be related. Oh, it's just so terrible I don't even want to tell you. And then we got to talk about it for a long time. Drama! Followed by the 'you need a new roof'; 'no, there must be a way to patch it' conversation. Drama number two! I love it. (Sorry, I know, I should be more helpful.) I can just sit and watch all this going on, and not have to be part of the drama, just get to watch it unfold. Fascinating. Because there are like ten solutions to this issue, any of which would be fine. So now I can sit back and wait to see which one happens and how it unfolds.  It's like watching the story line on a TV show except it's my family.

Mission: Hose.  Accomplished!

Fruit!  Yum!

The weather did get interesting on the way home. We drove through some heavy rain. Which made me wonder about Sunday. After last year I have become largely unattached to the weather. If it rains it rains. I'm still running and I won't have to drink as much water. Right?  Still...

Wet Pig!