First week in July 2015 with my husbands long lost cousin.

The end of June we traveled to Jefferson City, MO.   and then to a beautiful location, close to the Lake of the Ozarks,  on the Osage River where Jeff's first cousin, Skip, lives.   

Skips son Eric lives just up the hill in this beautiful house.

You can see how close to the river we were and as the river was up it was "right on" the river.  

Skip with his oldest son Eric. 

Skip has this gorgeous waterfall just a few yards from his house.  It flows very heavy when water is let out of some of the Ozark Lakes for recreation.

Skip was so gracious to drive us around Jefferson City to show us some of the beautiful sites.  He also treated us to a wonderful buffet supper.  I know I ate way too much.  Thank's Skip. 

This is the Missouri State Penitentiary that is no longer in use.  Since Skip was a Police officer for years, he has many memories of this building and walking through these doors. 

It is a big beautiful sandstone building and there are tours and also it has been used for filming prison movies. It is also a museum with tours and Ghost/Paranormal tours.   

Skip took us to the back to see the Gas Chamber. 
 He remembers walking prisoners from the prison
building to the Chamber and told us their is a "cross"  made into the sidewalk that leads to the Chamber. 

Jefferson City is also the capital of Missouri.  This is the big, tall, beautiful "Capital" building.    

Fountain and sculptures in the Capital courtyard. 

Just to show you how big these sculptures are.
  BTW,  thats me.

I was happy to see the 10 commandments still in the court yard.

Below, Jeff and Skip enjoy looking over the river.   

This is only part of the beautiful scene they were looking at. 

Skip and Jeff, (first cousins on their mothers side) pose for a picture.  They enjoyed many hours of visit time since they had not seen each other for about 40 years.  FB is wonderful and a great way to find family, friends and in this case, a cousin.  

So on the way back to Skips home (on the River)  we hit a terrible storm, strong winds, small hail and pouring rain like I had never seen before.   Oh yes, lets not forget the Tornado warnings.  God kept us safe and we made it back to find even higher water.   

"How high's the water mama?  10 ft high and rising"

Yes, the ground patio was under water and several feet in his basement.    

We were entertained by the high fast running river, notice the full big hay bale floating down the river and below is a big tree that was uprooted and blown down floating down the river.  I guess with the power of that storm, it was a blessing we didn't see bodies floating down the river.  Don't laugh, it has been known to happen.  Skip remembers a few rescue missions.  

Here is Skip checking for weather warnings or to check how high the river was expected to get. I loved looking at all his police memorabilia on his office walls.

We very much enjoyed our visit with Skip. 
 He was a great host. 

The waterfall after the storm.  It was roaring!

Next stop,   Skip's older brother, Jim, his wife Judy and family in Indiana.  As children Jeff remembers many fun times and memories made with his older cousins Jim and Skip.