​Today was the day when I felt like I had been driving for hours. Oh wait, I did drive for hours.  We started the day by driving an hour to the little town of Ransom where we met our waterfall tour guide, Craig. The plan was for him to ride in one car while the other car had a cellphone open on speaker, so we could hear everything that was being said. Before we started off, he did  warn us that we might lose connection. We did, actually about 10 minutes after we started driving. He was very good about telling us everything he said to the Linda car about the falls  when we stopped to look at them

​The first waterfall was only about 20 minutes away, but we lost the phone connection in the first 10 minutes we never did get the phone connected back up. This set of falls were named Johnny Mill Shoals. The water  crossed over low rocks into beautifully deep pool where his son used to swim. It was not easy climb down to see it. Roots were sticking up through the ground and as slippery moss covered rocks lined much of the path. Mom started to try to go down, but we quickly realized this was not a good idea. Linda K. also decided not to try to climb. Unfortunately this happened at most of the falls that we saw.

Back in the cars. We drove another 45 minutes to see the second waterfall. This was called Dove waterfall, named for the way the water feathered out over the rocks. It was very beautiful but you couldn't get too close to it as we're standing on a ledge overlooking the river.  This waterfall was relatively easy to get to so Mom and Linda K. were able to see this one. We also did not spend much time here as the owner of the property was working on clearing the land. On the way back to the car Craig pointed out some other interesting items along the path, wild mint and a sourwood tree which attract honey bees for sourwood honey.

The next waterfalls were a set of three and to view them we walked long a very difficult trail of about 1/3 of a mile, but it was worth the walk. There was one area here where we were actually ducking under low branches just to get over the rocks to be able to see the water cascading down. The last waterfall was by far the best. Mom, with a little help from me, and Linda K. made it down to this one. The first part of the trail was a little tricky but it then opened up onto an old horse trail through the woods which could be navigated a little easier than the others. It looked to me to be as tall as Crabtree Falls in Virginia. I could have stayed watching it  for hours. We did see some interesting flora on the way back up.

We drove back to where we had met with Craig. It was at this place called Headwaters Outfitters.  They run canoeing, kayaking, and tubing trips. They also sell camping and boating gear.  Just inside the door was an ice cream freezer.  It looked so good that  many of us enjoyed a Klondike bar out on the front veranda of the store.

Before we had ever left Richmond, Linda C. found this awesome restaurant called the Lobster Trap. We even made reservations through OpenTable before we left Richmond. This was where we had dinner tonight. There was a lot of sharing going on at this meal.  There were so many tasty offerings that we couldn't decide on what to eat. Mom and I checked out the mussels, the oysters, and the broccolini for appetizers and then pigged out on Lobster, scallops and shrimp for our main course. The others had such wonderful things as lobster mac and cheese, crab-stuffed portobello mushroom and really good-looking cornbread. They said it tasted a lot like banana bread. Linda K. also decided she would try the lobster bisque which she said was very good.  Linda K., Mom and I also shared a bottle of one of the best Tempranillo wines I've had in a very long time.

Tomorrow we check out The Biltmore.