One important and welcome side effect of our moving so far from our historic roots is that when folks come for a visit, they have to stay at least overnight. No sense in driving all this way and running off after a few hours. We're like a spider web. And they are the flies. This means that we have longer, more concentrated time for talking and hanging out together. And we like it. You'll have to ask the flies if they do.
Yesterday, Diana and Dick (Tom's sister and brotherinlaw) drove up from Fremont, in the Bay Area, where they were attending a conference. It was their first visit since we've moved. I don't remember when we've had so much time with just the two of them to chat and catch up with life. They live in the Santa Barbara area, so we mostly see them for a few hours near Christmas at the family party, and that's about it. So, it was with great pleasure for us that we could sit and have dinner (at Lefty's), chat through the evening, and enjoy breakfast together, too (well, except for the soggy scones, that is)!
And, as if caught in a spider's web, they had difficulty pulling themselves away. As they were on their way back down Greenhorn to leave town, they found the road blocked for some reason we don't know about yet. They called, and were coming back to our house (heh heh--we have a very sticky web). We decided to meet them on the road to lead them out another way that we'd been told goes through to the highway, but had never tried. Lost Lake Rd. starts out in the usual way, but turns into a very rough, very narrow, deeply-rutted, mud-boggy safari through the forest. It did, however, eventually, get us over the hills and creeks, to the highway, where they were, once again, on their way home.
We hope that we can lure them back for another visit, soon. Haven't had a chance to drag them off to the Empire Mine, or Malakoff Diggins, yet. Our little web will be even stickier, by then...
